Eric Asimov of the New York Times has a brief but interesting report on some Austrian Blaufrankisch wines. He makes the very good point, which I agree with whole-heartedly, that  Blaufrankisch is best when made in a lighter, more elegant style, rather than a super-ripe, super-extracted, ‘international’ style. I don’t drink that much of the stuff these days (Gernot my old friend, why did you have to leave us? We all miss you and your excellent taste in wines, please visit), but those I have had always seemed best when they were elegant, refined and more expressive of where they come from.

Some grape varieties lend themselves very well to making bigger, more international wines. There is nothing wrong with making wines like this from grapes and regions that can manage it; a lot of people love that style and good luck to them. However, this is not a recipe for success everywhere with any grape. These days it would be technically possible to harvest, with the right clones and vineyard management, obscenely ripe Gamay in Beaujolais, make it in an extractive style with rotary fermenters, season it with some expensive oak  and push it as ‘new wave Beaujolais’. But it would be disgusting. Gamay is just not up to managing such international-style winemaking treatments.

You probably would not be surprised to learn I also think that the wonderful, wonderful grape Pinot Noir should not be treated in such a manner. If you’ve ever had a super-ripe Australian Pinot that just smells of Bovril mixed with HP Sauce, or a 15.5+% monster from California which has had all character apart from jamminess baked out of it you should realise that Pinot needs a light hand. I’ve had truly vile Australian Pinot that has been blended with the world’s ripest Shiraz grapes; a waste of both grapes. Some consultant oenologists  in the US will suggest to their clients that they blend a proportion of Zinfandel in with their Pinot in the hope of scoring lots of points (although it is unlikely a winery will admit doing this). Again this misses the point of Pinot and, if you ask me, of Zinfandel too*. The Pernand-Vergelesses we had with our lovely friends last night shows the utter ravishing beauty and vast amounts of pleasure that light to medium-bodied Pinot can, and should, be delivering. Sure, Burgundy Grand Crus or the best producers in warmer regions (I love the Californian single-vineyard Pinots from Calera and that brilliant Australian geezer Gary Farr’s lovely Geelong Pinots) will produce somewhat more powerful wines, but Pinot is always about elegance and refinement. Beauty is a marvellous thing, as I hope you would all agree.

Back to Blaufrankisch. I’m out of the loop with decent producers these days so if any of my dear and much-appreciated readers are more up-to-date with what I should be looking out for then please let us all know in a comment.  

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*Californian Zinfandel can have so much personality, even when it is quite large scale, all of that lovely brambly fruit and power is a lot of fun. Big Zin is clearly a regional style unique to California and if people are growing the stuff they should be celebrating their fortune at being able to produce a properly Californian wine. As Paul Draper of Ridge has conclusively demonstrated, there are more sympathetic grapes that can live in Zin with far more harmony and the arranged and frankly scandalous marriage of Zinfandel and Pinot.

I remember, many years ago, an Austrian wine tasting in which Gruner Veltliner was compared to Chardonnay from other countries. I didn't think that it was really a reasonable comparison, as I thought GruV had more in common with Riesling. When I try this wine I am not so sure I was right.

Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Loibner Berg 2001, FX Pichler
A dense, deep nose with some white pepper, but lots of lemony fruit. It has the roundness of Chardonnay, the fruit too. It is certainly very mineral, and you've got to love its vivacity. This is a seriously complex, compelling nose of great style and class. It reaches the heady level of being interesting and thought-provoking. The palate has plenty of weight as well, but it is rather elegant. The fruit is lemony and, once again, it is quite white peppery. This has real interest. Even though ageing it has not changed it so much, the change is a improvement. This is one of the best GruVs I've had since I was regularly drinking with my chum Gernot. This is good. Damned-good.

I've enjoyed the last couple of Prager wines, so when I saw this in Fortnum's I thought it well worth a try.

Riesling Smaragd "Stenriegl" 2006, Prager
A highly perfumed nose of wonderful apricot and peach aromas. There is a strong earthiness to this wine, that grounds its more expressive, floral side. This is perfectly balanced. It tastes absoutely fantasic, with its floral, fruity flavours in perfect harmony with is dense, mineral weightiness. This is really lovely, lovely balance and style.

This is clearly a glass of class.

Riesling Smaragd "Achleiten" 2005, Weingut Prager
A very pure nose of lemon fruit and stony minerality; this smells subtle and beautiful. The fruit is perfectly ripe and just lovely. Serious complexity here. Oddly for an Austrian wine this doesn't smell of white pepper; I'd be hard pressed to tell this was Austrian if I was presented it blind. The complexity of the concentrated aromas make you well aware you are about to have a taste of something with serious class. There is density and an incredible depth of flavour to the palate, but it is kept bursting with fizzing life by its great acidity and brilliant minerality. It is very long. I suppose this will age very well, but if I had another bottle I'd pop it within the next six months; it is just gorgeous now. Both intellectually rewarding and full of an almost lewd amount of visceral pleasure.

I was in Amsterdam over the weekend, so perilously little wine was consumed. However, it was my birthday on Thursday and at the 'large-formats' party we held we popped a magnum of Riesling Singerriedel 2004 from Hirtzberger. This was quite delicious, quite large-scale but with good acidity. It had a typically Austrian white pepper aroma to it as well as late harvest Riesling characteristics. It was very nice, but I really don't think it would be for ageing.

Restaurant Rekondo had a rather large and rather good wine list. Sadly, the Burgundy we wanted was out of stock so for a change we ordered a bottle of Bordeaux. I don't know what came over us.

Riesling Zöbinger Heiligenstein Cuvée Lyra 2000, Brundlmeyer
A rich, peachy nose with creamy minerality and a subtle white pepper character. It doesn't smell too much like an Austrian wine. The palate is quite big with plenty of ripe fruit, but perfectly balanced by good acidity and a mineral tang. This is a nice bottle of wine.

Château Montrose 1988
A restrained, elegant nose of blackcurrants and earth. This smells very serious. The palate is harmonious and quite seductive for claret. The tannic structure is not too aggressive. A classic, refined Bordeaux that is mature and ready to drink. I still don't really see the point of Cabernet based on this, though.