Rotling Outlaws
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Rotling Outlaws

ByNils Kevin Puls

​The sun blazes. The air shimmers. On the horizon four figures throw long shadows across the dry, crumbling ground. They are headed toward a city. Doors swing open. The four step from light into dark, their throats dusty and dry. Behind a deserted bar stands a man. He pushes four full glasses over to them. Out of the glasses sloshes a wine as red as the setting sun. If you aren’t thirsty by now, you should at least be hearing the melody of a harmonica. This is how the opening scene of a revival—the Rotling revival—could begin. The four men…...

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3 Can’t-Miss Sparkling Wines (with Umlauts)
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3 Can’t-Miss Sparkling Wines (with Umlauts)

ByDaniela Dejnega

​The world of sparkling wines is changing for the better. The number of producers approaching this beverage in serious, artisanal, and creative ways continues to climb. “Grower Sekt” from Austria and Germany is very much en vogue. We are witnessing a tremendous push to quality. For a long time, “mass over class” was the motto, especially in Germany. But for a new generation, awareness of terroir and a trend toward reducing residual sugar are increasingly the focus. No stone has been left unturned in Austria, either. For several years, Austrian Sekt has been governed by a three-tiered quality pyramid: “Sekt…...

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Austria’s Traisental 
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Austria’s Traisental 

ByNils Kevin Puls

​Wine regions are threaded along the Danube, one after another, like a string of Chanel pearls. Wagram, Kamptal, Kremstal, Wachau. And Traisental — the only one that lies exclusively south of the Danube. Its namesake river, the Traisen, divides the valley as the Seine does Paris or the Gironde does Bordeaux, into left and right banks. The tiny region flaunts French finesse and cool avant-garde. But also a rustic, down-to-earth charm. In Paris, the Left Bank is the quartier of intellectuals and artists. Through Yves Saint Laurent it achieved world fame in fashion. Who or what sets the tone and…...

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Bucket of Blaufränkisch grapes under a pair of pruning shears
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Blaufränkisch Bares Its Soul

ByChristoph Raffelt

My first true Blaufränkisch moment came in 2013, at a now-shuttered restaurant in Hamburg. Thirty-six bottles from a swath of Austria’s appellations stood open for tasting, from classics like Prieler’s Goldberg 1995 to Marienthal from Ernst Triebaumer to Ried Point from Kolwentz. Those wines impressed me, as they had in the past, even as they failed to inspire me.  This time, however, other wines had joined the lineup. The Spitzerberg of Muhr-van der Niepoort (today Weingut Dorli Muhr) , for example; the 2010 Reserve Pfarrgarten from Wachter-Wiesler; and the 2002 Lutzmannsburg Alte Reben from Moric. Suddenly, I was electrified. The wine in the glass was entirely unlike anything I…...

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When Wines Play the Lang Game in Austria
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When Wines Play the Lang Game in Austria

ByChristoph Raffelt

​”In the past, nature held very little meaning for me,” Kremstal winegrower Markus Lang admits when asked to remember the first impressions of his vineyards. Fifteen years ago, he came to the parcels on Austria’s Steiner Schreck as the Virgin Mary to her child: naive and fully unprepared. He inherited the vineyard from his great uncle, whose winemaking reputation preceded him… for wines to be avoided at all costs.  “But opening the gate to the vineyard for the first time, I was struck by a feeling that I belonged there,” he recalls. “So I got to work. And it was a…...

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The New Teachings of Old Field Blends
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The New Teachings of Old Field Blends

ByNils Kevin Puls

The year is 1806. The date June 17th. Privy Councilor Goethe sits in Frankfurt — high and dry. He reaches for his quill and writes a letter to a friend: “Send me some Würzburger wine, for no other wine satisfies, and I am morose without my accustomed favorite drink.”  While the line may not be poetic, the composition Johann Wolfgang von Goethe thirsted for is. The wine in question was, quite possibly, “Frentsch” (local dialect for Altfränkischer Satz or Old Franconian Mixed Set): a field blend of some 20 grape varieties, all planted, harvested, and fermented together. What once gave growers a bit of…...

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Sebastian Bördthäuser at Austrian Koch.Campus's Swine Wine event behind a row of wine bottles from Wagram winegrower Bernard Ott

Six Swine Wines in the Steiermark

BySebastian Bordthäuser

12/17/2021 Swine Wines in the Steiermark By Sebastian Bordthäuser ​ In mid-October, Koch.Campus invited guests to a first-class pig-out in Trautmannsdorf, in Steiermark. “Going Whole Hog!” was the stated theme: two days of digging into the question of what differentiates the various heritage breeds from one another, and which provides the best meat. This combination of swine and wine catapulted the topic into the Champions League, and raised equally enthralling questions: Is there such a thing as terroir pork? Which wines are best suited to pair with various breeds? How much raw pork can I sample at 8 in the…...

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What to Drink When a Somm Comes to Dinner
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What to Drink When a Somm Comes to Dinner

ByChris Losh

It is Friday night and I’m terrified. In 24 hours, a top sommelier is coming to our house for dinner. A sommelier who puts together the wine lists for a global restaurant group; a sommelier who has spent over 30 years training more somms than I’ve seen typos on a wine list; a sommelier who matches food and wine the way the rest of us match our Sunday outfits. And tomorrow, I’m responsible for the wine. My wife draws up a shopping list for the meal, blissfully unconcerned. “We’re not a restaurant,” she says, “why should she expect Michelin-starred cooking?”…...

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Wines with a View at Winkler-Hermaden
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Wines with a View at Winkler-Hermaden

ByJill Barth

12/17/2021 Wines with a View at Winkler-Hermaden By Jill Barth ​ The story of Weingut Winkler-Hermaden and its home in a striking 11th-century castle starts with a “small, tough” woman. That woman, Magdalene Helene, was current proprietor Georg Winkler-Hermaden’s grandmother. When he found her diary, which she kept from her arrival at the Schloss Kapfenstein in 1916 through WWII, he “began to read and couldn’t stop until the book was finished.”  In 1916, Magdalene Helene came to the castle as a young woman to work as a maid. Just two years later, her employer died and bequeathed the Schloss and…...

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Eat + TRINK | Go Austrian with Tafelspitz This Holiday
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Eat + TRINK | Go Austrian with Tafelspitz This Holiday

ByEmily Campeau

12/17/2021 Eat & TRINK | Go Austrian for Your Holiday Feast By Emily Campeau ​ Tomato season rolled right into the root vegetable months, and here we are, planning end-of-the-year festivities. Whether you’re looking to ditch the old classics for a fresh recipe to impress your guests or make dinner for two with plenty left over for a next-day sandwich, I suggest we look to Austria for inspiration.  Tafelspitz is a dish closely associated with Viennese cuisine and is generally considered to be Austria’s national dish. The first time I crossed paths with it was at one of those distinguished…...

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