Wine trip 2009 - Rust

Our first stop was planned in Rust in Austria in our favorite place by the Neusiedlersee. The terroir here is very specific with its mild climate, surrounded by hills, its low rainfall but those special mists floating in from over the lake. It’s a paradise for any sweet wine lover with the local speciality Ruster Ausbruch, Eiswein and a whole range of other goodies made from hand-picked fruits usually collected in late autumn. This time my number one Ruster Ausbruch was the Landauer 1998 (18,50 euro in a producers’ shop). Tasting this wine may just take you to a stage close to Satori. Shiny, deep color of old gold. The nose is full of honey and lime tree blossom. In the mouth, no worries of this wine being vapid or flat. The sweetness is very well balanced by a good acidity followed by a long, smooth and mellow finish. Not quite a wine for daily consumption and I wouldn’t recommend it with just any food. Despite the label as a dessert wine, if you're going to go for anything, then go for cheese rather than cake, with blue cheese usually being a good option.

As for red wines – this time we enjoyed Wenzel. This smallish family producer is better known for his white and sweet wines (his family has been producing wines in Rust since the C17th - now he produces ca. 36,000 bottles per year, some of which makes its way to the US), but the Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt and Pinot Noir that we tried were absolutely decent, given that what we were looking for was simply a good quaffer that we could take home for every day consumption.

We drank a bottle of his Blaufränkisch 2006 with our meal at the Rusterhof (21 euro in restaurant, 6 euro in producers’ shop). This had quite fruity bouquet of black currants, lively and distinct, but not aggressive. Low in tannins, quite typical for Rust wines. A good daily wine and a perfect match for the food of the region – a wiener schnitzel or not too spicy goulash.

Blauer Zweigelt, Burgenland, 2007

Blauer Zweigelt 2007, Anita & Hans Nittnaus, Zweigelt, Burgenland, Austria
$15, Uva, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Zweigelt variety is an easy to drink, grapey hybrid of Blaufränkisch and St. Lauren.
Its basically the Austrian Beaujolais: cheap and tasty.
This particular bottle definitely attempts to go another step...

Although slightly unbalanced (aggressive fruit acid), the mid-palette blackberry, lemon and sour cherry + the finish of raisin, fig and bitter chocolate make it a worthy experiment.
The nose is mostly lactic: yogurt, lychee and a touch of caramel.
The wine has crazy, flame like looking legs, medium body and a tiny bit of fizziness.

I chilled the leftovers overnight and that seemed to work pretty well.