Austrian wine styles

[Waiters Friend]

G'day

I m in Austria for a week or so, but know very little about Austrian wines. What styles are fine, and what should I avoid? Last night was gruner veltliner (OK) and a red beginning with Z that appeared to be unoaked.

Cheers

Allan

[tarija]

If you are in Vienna, duck into the Julius Meinl wine bar (end of Graben) for a lot of interesting stuff by the glass, including eiswein. I forget the name, but there is another wine shop/small bar which has an ENORMOUS amount of European wine - hundreds of bottles of bottles of wine from 1920-1980. It's north-east of St Stephens, probably 200-300m away, on a lane running north-east (street may be Essiggasse).

Whites: gruner veltliner, riesling
Reds: Blaufrankisch, zweigelt, pinot noir

Top red producers (from Hugh Johnson's book): Triebaumer, J Heinrich, P Achs, Kollwentz-Romerhof, Krutzler, Moric, Nitnaus, Prieler
Whites: Alzinger, Willi Brundlmayer, Gross, Franz Hirtzberger, Emmerich Knoll, Nigl, Nikolaihof, FX Pichler, Prager, Tement
Dessert wines: Feiler-Artinger, Kracher, Velich

Easiest to find of these producers are Willi Brundlmayer, Knoll, Nigl, FX Pichler and Kracher.

Average quality is pretty high, you will enjoy. The dessert wines are incredible as well, and a lot cheaper than the Germans.

Also, if you're looking to buy the Mozart chocolate balls (a Salzburg speciality), the ones by Furst are the original and best. Silver and blue foil. There are a lot of substandard imitations (the red and gold ones), beware (there definitely is a difference in quality). It's pretty hard to find the Furst kugels though, the red and gold ones are in all the tourist shops, supermarkets, and most chocolate shops.
http://www.original-mozartkugel.com/

[Waiters Friend]

Thanks Tarija. Off to Wachau Valley tomorrow so I will advise if I come across anything special. I'm in Linz for next 2 days, and there is a vinotech locally, so might also give that a nudge.

[daz]

The Blaufrankisch from Hahndorf Hill can be very good, if you're interested on your return. Shared a couple of bottles one of my brothers had.

[gary.harris]

aren't Austrian's known for anti-freeze?

[Waiters Friend]

Thanks everyone. Now in Prague for a couple of days, and somehow managed to go through a week in Austria with relatively little wine consumption. The schnapps got a nudge one night, however, courtesy of my Austrian hostess. You'll be pleased to know Australia reigned triumphant in the drinking competition (she offered to 'drink me down the table' with an apple/pear wine/cider called most, before switching to the schnapps').

My Austrian friend also made similar reference to antifreeze as the previous post, and I only got to try some fairly average Riesling, and a couple of other whites. I did, however, receive some of the Mozart balls (the same ones as referenced in Tarija's post) - she hunted them down based on the this thread (although she doesn't like them herself).

Cheers

Allan