Re: Pairing request (long)

Never ever heard of this producer. (Google says he's from Mitterarnsdorf on the "wrong" side of the Danube.)

M.

Robert and Michael, Out of curiousity, what producers/vineyards would you recommend for the better examples of Austrian Chardonnay? I confess that I have yet to see or try one, but I think that -- for educational purposes ;-) -- I should look for one or two to try...

Mark Lipton

Concerning the above plus Mark's posting about Austrian Chardonnay....

I had four Austrian Chards in a tasting several years ago (don't remember the specifics--sorry) placed against four Washington State Chardonnays and two Chablis from France; the point of the tasting was to explore that flinty, lemony quality that Chardonnays in the northern regions often get when the wine is not oaked up within a centimeter of its life. The Austrian wines were all extremely light and "pale"; the tasting was in summer and the reaction of the group was that the best of the four Austrian wines would be a good hot weather sipping wine, but not so great with food. Two of the Washington wines were from the esteemed L'Ecole No. 41, and one from the less known but very good value company Chinook. These three beat the Austrian wines out to the pavement and back, and the more expensive L'Ecole bottle rivalled the lesser known Chablis. My luck with Gruner/Austria has been much more foodworthy.

The non-availability of Washington wine in your area may make this information not so useful, but we tried the 2003 bottling of Chinook's Chardonnay/Semillion blend with roasted cauliflower last night at a dinner party because I mentioned your soup experiment, and the pairing was really excellent. It's on sale at the U.S. national grocery chain Whole Foods this week for US$6.00

And thank you for actually reporting on the results of your dinner! So many folks pick our collective brains for pairings, and then leave us all wondering how matters turned out.

Mark Lipton wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Hi Mark!

I have to admit that the number of Austrian Chardonnays I had is very limited.

I had very nice ones from Alphart (Thermenregion, Niederösterreich) and one from Weinrieder (Weinviertel).

The Alphart Wines (this might be true in general for the wines from the Thermenregion if generalizations of that kind are possible at all) have a bit more weight. Some vintners in that region are also experimenting with oak.

Another interesting region might be the Südsteiermark. Chardonnay is grown there a lot but called Morillon. Vintners to look for are the usual suspects: Tement, Tscheppe, Sabathi, Polz.

Michael P. rated the 2002 Morillon Zieregg from Tement 94 points. I guess this could be called a recommendation :-).

regards, Robert

Thanks for the notes. Especially interesting re the Vertente. I understand Drew Niepoort is doing interesting things with table wines.