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Austrian wines and value for money

My general impression from listening to others is that a) Austrian wines are not cheap b) They offer good value for money

Would people here agree with these propositions, and do they apply at all price levels for Austrian wines?

The reason I ask is that yesterday I tried several Austrian wines that are probably at the bottom end of what anyone would currently bother importing into the UK. They varied in price between GBP 8.00 and

13.00. Everyone who tried these wines felt they offered generally poor VFM. My opinion was that the range was from "shockingly overpriced" to "about right". I only have sketchy notes, but if anyone is really interested in exploring the issue in detail, give me a shout and I will post them.
Reply to
Steve Slatcher
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Reply to
Michael Pronay
Reply to
Steve Slatcher

Are you talking about ex-cellar export prices or retail in UK? In the first case: definitely yes; as to the latter, I have no idea.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay
Reply to
Steve Slatcher

Well, that's always the same problem: Except for Jamek there are no first or even second rank producers. Jamek is based in the Wachau, arguably Austria's best white wine region. I wasn't even aware of them bottling Sekt, and red wine is a total aberration (or, mildly spoken: a curiosity) there.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

Steve, Of course we're dealing with two different markets (UK and US), but I would agree with the general idea. To me, Austrian white wines are world class and available here for between $15-30 per bottle for the most part. Austrian GVs (mostly what I'm referring to here) are exceptionally versatile food wines that also can age well and have enough character to please even wine geeks such as myself. In this price range, the other competition comes from NZ (SB), the Loire, Alsace and Chablis, FWIW.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

Even at the high end, such as TBA and Eiswein, Austrian wines often can be a good value compared with wines from some of the top German estates. Of course it helps that growing conditions are right for these late harvest wines in parts of Austria much more often than in the better regions of Germany. Of course Austria has made tons of sweet wines in the past that were not so good, but the same can be said for many other countries.

In the US, Swiss wines seem to give the least value for the money. There are some very good Swiss wines, but they are difficult to find here. Production is limited, and the Swiss seem to drink most of the best rather than exporting them.

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Cwdjrx _
[] ] In the US, Swiss wines seem to give the least value for the money. There ] are some very good Swiss wines, but they are difficult to find here. ] Production is limited, and the Swiss seem to drink most of the best ] rather than exporting them. ]

They are very expensive, even in Suisse. I've been told that high labor cost skews the equation. Not to mention some very steep slopes, much as with Hermitage; some parcels require treatment by helicopter.

-E

Reply to
Emery Davis

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