If I offered you a Rotburger you may well be a little cautious about accepting my generosity. If I followed that up by telling you not to worry because it was created in a lab in 1922 by a man, no, a professor, named Friedrich, you may not be any less certain.
But you should accept my offer. Friedrich (Felix to his friends) was indeed a professor, in an Austrian institute, and it is said that he did rather well through his association with a certain movement that came to prominence in the 1930's and rather less well after 1945, but by accepting that we can't choose everything about our circumstances we can concentrate on his real contribution to the www (not t'internet, the wonderful world of wine) and know that Rotburger is the name first given to a grape variety he created through crossing two existing varieties.
He created Rotburger by crossing Blaufrankisch and St.Laurent, two grapes that we have encountered before in weeks E (2013) where the former, also known as Kekfrankos, appeared in Egri Bikaver, and S (2014) where the latter was a varietal. Over fifty years after he did this his efforts were posthumously acknowledged by the grape being renamed in his honour. Zweigelt being his surname.
Week Z (2014) Zweigelt 2011, by Christoph Edelbauer. Newcomer Wines £22.90.
Each of the grape's parents were selected to provide their progeny with specific characteristics. Blaufrankisch is late ripening, tannic and spicy, whereas St.Laurent is dark skinned and highly aromatic. The combination must be considered successful as Zweigelt is now Austria's most widely planted variety.
This wine is an intense ruby colour and has fruit-driven flavours of blackcurrants and plums with a gentle spicy finish. The tannins are round and soft, which may have been enhanced by it having been double-decanted from bottle to jug and back again and there is ample acidity to balance the 13.5% alcohol. There is a fruit sweetness to this otherwise dry red wine.
I am slightly surprised by how full and rich this is, but that probably reveals more about my level of ignorance regarding red Austrian wines than how closely the contents of this bottle represent the type generally.
The maker, Christoph Edelbauer has been making wine in the Kamp valley of Austria for eleven years, according to austrianwine.com , which if they have their facts correct is impressive when you read he is now only 34. Or am I getting old?
This is another week where I like the wine and I also like the presentation. There isn't a huge amount of information on the bottle, especially for a non-German speaker like me, but the pseudo-handwritten label is reminiscent of how The One presents her homegrown apple juice and that appeals to me.
There is a particularly enjoyable German word on the reverse that I would love to be able to use if I ever play Scrabble again (yes, thank you, I know it would be against the rules) which has seventeen letters: Erzeugerabfullung. This is the local word meaning 'estate bottled' telling us that the entire process from vine to bottle took place on the producer's premises. No 20,000 litre shipping bags used here, even if the bottle was sold to me from a container.
This is the second bottle we have opened from the Austrian shop-in-a-container in Shoreditch and, so far, they have a 100% approval rating, even if the prices do represent their limited production volumes.
But you should accept my offer. Friedrich (Felix to his friends) was indeed a professor, in an Austrian institute, and it is said that he did rather well through his association with a certain movement that came to prominence in the 1930's and rather less well after 1945, but by accepting that we can't choose everything about our circumstances we can concentrate on his real contribution to the www (not t'internet, the wonderful world of wine) and know that Rotburger is the name first given to a grape variety he created through crossing two existing varieties.
He created Rotburger by crossing Blaufrankisch and St.Laurent, two grapes that we have encountered before in weeks E (2013) where the former, also known as Kekfrankos, appeared in Egri Bikaver, and S (2014) where the latter was a varietal. Over fifty years after he did this his efforts were posthumously acknowledged by the grape being renamed in his honour. Zweigelt being his surname.
Each of the grape's parents were selected to provide their progeny with specific characteristics. Blaufrankisch is late ripening, tannic and spicy, whereas St.Laurent is dark skinned and highly aromatic. The combination must be considered successful as Zweigelt is now Austria's most widely planted variety.
This wine is an intense ruby colour and has fruit-driven flavours of blackcurrants and plums with a gentle spicy finish. The tannins are round and soft, which may have been enhanced by it having been double-decanted from bottle to jug and back again and there is ample acidity to balance the 13.5% alcohol. There is a fruit sweetness to this otherwise dry red wine.
I am slightly surprised by how full and rich this is, but that probably reveals more about my level of ignorance regarding red Austrian wines than how closely the contents of this bottle represent the type generally.
The maker, Christoph Edelbauer has been making wine in the Kamp valley of Austria for eleven years, according to austrianwine.com , which if they have their facts correct is impressive when you read he is now only 34. Or am I getting old?
This is another week where I like the wine and I also like the presentation. There isn't a huge amount of information on the bottle, especially for a non-German speaker like me, but the pseudo-handwritten label is reminiscent of how The One presents her homegrown apple juice and that appeals to me.
There is a particularly enjoyable German word on the reverse that I would love to be able to use if I ever play Scrabble again (yes, thank you, I know it would be against the rules) which has seventeen letters: Erzeugerabfullung. This is the local word meaning 'estate bottled' telling us that the entire process from vine to bottle took place on the producer's premises. No 20,000 litre shipping bags used here, even if the bottle was sold to me from a container.
This is the second bottle we have opened from the Austrian shop-in-a-container in Shoreditch and, so far, they have a 100% approval rating, even if the prices do represent their limited production volumes.
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