Wine Club | October 22: Wines From Across the Old Austro-Hungarian Empire
Wines From Across the Old Austro-Hungarian Empire
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Wines From Across the Old Austro-Hungarian Empire 〰️
Little Pack
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The 10.5% alcohol doesn’t reference residual sugar or reflect being picked way too early. Somehow this wine pulls off extended maceration, relatively short aging, and is remarkably alive. It goes through many stages after opening and none of them require drinking fast and cold. Literally “Carpathian schist,” this is 100% Grüner Veltliner from the Spitzerberg planted in 1970. Grapes were hand harvested, destemmed, and then gently macerated between 60-90 days in a 430 liter Georgian qvevri (above ground). Following maceration and fermentation, the wine was aged in both used Oak and Qvevri for 6 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with total SO2 under 10ppm, this can be decanted with confidence and really enjoyed.
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The Birtok (estate) comes from a variety of clones and specific sites. Clone P9 from Iván-völgy P123, P111, and P147 from the Porkoláb-völgy. Harvested at the end of August and into early September, fermentation was in large (5000-8000 liter) wooden and stainless steel open vats (partly whole bunches), 10-12 days of maceration, twice daily foot trodden and/or pumped over, then aged five months (full malo) in used oak. Think old school Poulsard albeit with Hungarian herbal cherry and spice. This is a light refreshing red in a whole new category.
Prince Pack
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This is something we had while BBQ’ing at the winery that we’re finally able to bring in. Chillable and Rosé’ish, it’s a 100% whole cluster, 1-2 days maceration, fermented in stainless steel, and aged in both barrel and Qvevri for 8 months. The stem inclusion gives plenty of bitterness and aromatics, and the fruit is plenty tart to balance out. Zero additions of any kind, it’s a remarkable “Rosé” from Johannes’s Stixneusiedl vineyard.
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This 57-year-old and small berry clone bush-trained 1 hectare vineyard was Oszkár’s great-grandmother’s dowry. The vineyard borders the Szelevényi nature reserve by only a 3 meter wide road. The wildlife and cover crops nearly mimic the forest. Oszkár also remembers his grandfather saying that Olaszrizling needs time with the skins in order to survive. Back then, there were no additions to the wines and Oszkár is keeping with both traditions. 6 days on the skins followed by 12 months in barrel. He’s also fond of describing this wine as grease and motor oil for the soul even though he prefers only man and horse in the vineyard. Wine from Fodor encapsulates the farming and the cellar from these older generations and has great significance to Oszkár. Bottled unfiltered by gravity with zero additions.
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Hand harvested, destemmed, open vat fermentation with native yeast, 10 days skin contact, zero racking, and then aged two years min in oak before bottling. They’ve been making this blend since 1999, but as their farming has become better and better, this blend is proof of the positive effects. Despite the Cab Sauv, this blend has a ton of energy packed into less than 12% alcohol.
Lost Worlds, Living Traditions
This month we are taking a look at some wines from around the Pannonian Basin in modern day Austria and Hungary (parts of Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, Poland, and Romania are technically within this geographical feature as well). The region is bisected by the old Danube river and is one of Europe’s most ancient heartlands once having been entirely underwater. Resting between the Carpathian Mountains in the north and bordered by the Illyrian ranges along Croatia and Bosnia to the south, this relatively small landmass has spawned a wild panoply of different cultures, traditions, and human developments. Home to the historic political powerhouse of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the outer reaches of the Ottoman Empire, this oft-forgotten slice of Europe bears spectacular viticulture to this day.
One of wine’s most alluring features is that while it is a consumable and intoxicating product, it is fundamentally a product of culture and history. Wine is inextricably linked to the moment in time in which it is created. Natural wine allows us to pull back distracting spoofilations of the drink and accentuate these historical markers. The oldest evidence of wine in human society dates back to 9000 BC but wine can even evoke the lost worlds of more recent times. Central Europe may not be the first place that comes to mind when reaching for a wine glass yet it is extremely important to the history of wine and even to the development of farming itself in Europe. Join us this month for a venture into a place where even today, people living in the same residence for years find they’ve lived in a handful of different countries due to rapidly changing borders. This is a land that until a few centuries ago was a juggernaut of culture and power, a place that although having waned in the international imagination is still rich with living history.
The first wine in both the Little Pack and Prince Pack comes from Joannes Trapl who started his estate at 25, taking over family vines that had been planted decades before by his grandfather in Spitzerberg, Austria. Defined by its location in a valley between both the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians and the Western Alps, Spitzerberg was a region for cheap Zweigelt wines when grandpa Trapl established the first vineyards. Demeter certified, Joannes’s approach emphasizes biodiversity and maintenance of the vineyards as rich ecosystems. He works with both red and white varieties indigenous to the region. You’ll see these grapes pop up with different names in various languages throughout the Pannonian Basin as they’ve made their way around the domain of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire and even the once Ottoman controlled territory further south. Wines are natively fermented in open air vats once brought into the cellar. Trapl typically works with no additives whatsoever, even avoiding sulfuring at bottling for most cuvées. Club Members for both the Little and Prince Packs will be trying the Karpatenschiefer, Grüner Veltliner. A confounding, extended maceration (10 months on the skins! Aged Georgian amphora, too!) wine exemplary of Trapl’s vibrant, kinetic style. While clocking in at the tiny, 10.5 % alcohol, this does not indicate an early pick or harvest. (For noobs, lower alcohol = lower sugar levels = lower Brix or ripeness level.) Trapl picks according to taste, and meticulously managing grape canopy to allow for a longer ripening period, without risking spiked sugar content. This allows the components of the grapes that contribute to the wistful and pronounced aromatics of the wines to shine through while maintaining that fresh acidity. Serve cold as the Austria Alps and enjoy. Deliciously pairs with rich cheeses, spicy dishes, BBQ & pickles.
For the second wine in both Packs, we travel to Szeksárd, Hungary, where the Heiman family is fueling the renaissance of the once nearly extinct grape, Kadarka. While Szeksárd has little reputation in the West, it is deeply tied to the history of Europe. These loess soils interspersed with Terra Rossa were among the first to be farmed in Europe by Celtic peoples in the 5th millennia. The Celts would make wine here, as would the Romans, Cicesterian Monks, Serbians before and after Turkish occupation, who brought Kadarka to the region. More recently, German immigration from Swabia in the 19th century invigorated winemaking techniques in the region. The Heiman family themselves have Swabian roots and continue fueling a renaissance of the region. Yet their efforts are in response to another historical moment that had a massive impact, the Communist post-war period. During the years of Soviet-occupation, large areas could be re-allocated to the production of different grape varieties or entirely different categories of wine. While trend chasing capitalists of the same period ripped out their indigenous grapes and replanted higher grossing varieties, Communists ripped out low-yielding varieties and farmed with pesticides and chemicals in a myopic approach to winemaking only concerned with efficiency and formula. This approach damaged, even eradicated viticultural traditions in all corners of the Soviet Union like in the Republic of Georgia where traditional winemaking was made illegal or in Armenia which was dedicated solely to the production of Sherry-like concoctions and brandy. Kadarka nearly suffered this fate going from 60,000 hectares down to less than 400.Now experts like Zoltan Sr. Heiman propagate various clones of the grape, planting them widely to test which soils and climates the grape will thrive in. Winemaking here is done all spontaneously, with fermentation going on in olden wooden vessels, zero fining and, if anything at all, a coarse filter. This Kadarka reminds natty wine lovers instantly of an old fashioned Plousard from France’s Jura. Fascinatingly aromatic, occasionally herbaceous, mineral-laden, with tangy cherried fruit these wines have an impressive range.
For the three additional wines carried only in the Prince Pack,we’ve got a second wine from Joannes Trapl, the Uni 6 a blend of Zweigelt, Sankt Laurent, Blaufränkisch macerated for just 1 to 2 days fermented in various vessels and then bottled with a little fizz for an absolutely chuggable porch pounder. Going further south to Serbia, the fourth wine in the Prince Pack is this profoundly old fashioned Olaszrizling from Mauer. Six days on the skins, from 57 year old vines near a nature preserve, this orange wine quickly takes on deeper leathery hues, evoking piney spice of the forest, draughts and potions of the premodern herbalist. And for the fifth wine, we are back to Austria in place called Andert, an inky red from the eastern side of the country. Zweigelt, St. Laurent, Cabernet Sauvignon yet far higher-toned than the bulkier reds of the past.
For Wine Club pick-up and to learn more about these wines, stop by this Saturday October 8th during Wine-Study from 1-5p! Free for members.
Ciao!
Little Prince & Bottleshop