Yours,
Michael Thurner

Austria's Fine Brands
Michael Thurner, CEO
office@austriasfinebrands.com
www.austriasfinebrands.com

Austrian Wine Beats the World

(Singapore, August 2009). Austria´s Fine Brands is a portfolio featuring some of the best wine estates in Austria. And this was proven again recently at an international blind tasting in Singapore. The roster of 13 tasters comprised the most renowned wine-connoisseurs of Singapore (see participation list), including journalists, importers and sommeliers. You will find the list of wines tasted via the following link. For each flight, the tasters decided which wine they preferred for the top position; the wine selected most became the flight champion.

In the First Flight, the Grüner Veltliner Käferberg 2007 from the Jurtschitsch wine estate was the tasting group´s absolute favorite. This was followed by Grüner Veltliner Berg 2006 from Markus Huber. Not so strongly preferred, however, was Les Purcelles 2007 Puligny Montrachet from Domaine Leflaive in Burgundy. With the Rieslings (the Second Flight) Huber took first place; Jurtschitsch placed second.

The Third Flight was dedicated to the Sauvignon Blanc grape variety. Manfred Tement proved with his Sauvignon blanc Grassnitzberg 2007as well as the powerful Zieregg Sauvignon blanc 2007 that he is amongst the best Sauvignon producers in the world. The majority of the tasters favored both of these wines over the Sauvignon icon Puilly-Fumé Silex by Didier Dagueneau. Also the Sauvignon varietal´s aging potential was demonstrated credibly with the Terment Zieregg Sauvignon blanc 1999.

These three white wine flights demonstrated impressively the overall level of the tasting. The red wines followed:

Flight Four was dedicated to the varietal Pinot Noir. Geographically, Burgundy and the wine-growing areas of Austria are located between the exact same degrees of latitude (47°- 48°). With that, both countries feature perfect climatic conditions for elegant red wines (Blaufränkisch, St.Laurent and Pinot Noir). Out of the three Pinot Noir wines, the Pinot Noir Holzspur Grand Reserve 2004 from the Johanneshof Reinisch (JR) wine estate in the Thermenregion was the absolute favorite. It is no coincidence that the Thermenregion is repeatedly referred to as "the Burgundy of Austria". Also generously rated was the Pinot Noir Reserve 2006 from Gerhard Markowitsch in the Carnuntum wine-growing area to the north. When the third Pinot Noir was revealed, the tasters could hardly believe that is was in fact a Meo Carmuzet Clos Vougeot 2006. Only one of the 13 tasters preferred this wine overall.

In the Fifth Flight, Moric Blaufränkisch Neckenmarkt Alte Reben 2006 triumphed over the famous La Turque 2004 Cote Rotie from Guigal. This flight demonstrated especially that Blaufränkisch, in an elegant and spicy style, has a character that is unbelievably similar to the top wines of the northern Rhone. This is also true for St. Laurent, shown in this flight with - once again - Reinisch´s St.Laurent Holzspur Grand Reserve 2004.

Flight Six offered major international competition as well. The Bordeaux style was the focus on this group. First of all, Arachon Evolution 2004 from T.FX.T. was the big winner. With serious competition, it stood its ground against Mouton Rothschild 2004, closely followed by the Weninger winery´s Blaufränkisch Dürrau 2004 and the Rosenberg 2004 from Gerhard Markowitsch. While Arachon and Rosenberg are Bordeaux-style blends (mainly Blaufränkisch or Zweigelt with portions of Cabernet and Merlot ), it became very clear that a pure Blaufränkisch (Weninger´s Dürrau) is an absolute world class wine. For Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, who writes for, amongst other publications, erobertparker.com, the entire flight was on a very high level, with Weninger´s Dürrau as her personal favorite. Once again, Austria demonstrated that its red wines can play in the top league - even when up against the Great Names in blind tastings! This flight was followed by two of
Weninger´s Blaufränkisch wines (Flight Seven), that reveal wonderful aging potential: the 2002 and the still-youthful Blaufränkisch Reserve 1992. A remarkable exercise indeed !

The final round of the tasting (the Eighth Flight) was a showdown between exciting sweet wines. Hans Tschida is one of the best sweet wine producers in Austria as well as the world because of the brilliant harmony and elegance defining his wines. The natural acidity of the Seewinkel - where Tschida´s vineyards lie - lends to this region´s sweet wines a freshness that is more pronounced than what is found in the wines of the international competition (most notably Sauternes and Barsac). So it is not surprising that in blind tastings, these wines are preferred even over great names such as Chateau Yquem. This was certainly confirmed in this flight! Both of Tschida´s wines - the Trockenbeerenauslese made from the Sämling varietal and matured in steel tanks, and the barrique TBA made of Chardonnay - were preferred hands down over Yquem and made for a glorious tasting finale.

Apples & Pears:
Tastings like these are definitely eye openers. They show that also small countries can produce great wines. Sometimes it is said that these types of tastings are like comparing apples to pears. Perhaps this is true - however, our aim was not to show that we have the better apples, but that our pears are also very good. And in this particular blind tasting, no one was able to say which were the apples and which were the pears !

The goal of Austria´s Fine Brands is to make these wines internationally known and to increase their availability. Because one thing is for sure: for a well-chosen wine list, Austrian wine must not be missed.

• Tasting List - Results
• List of Tasters

Falstaff Book Published:

Trade News - Info from the Wineries:

Markus Huber

Jurtschitsch

Markowitsch

Johanneshof Reinisch

Angerhof Tschida

Arachon T.FX.T.

Weninger

Tement