I'm just back from my annual harvest-time tour of Austria. (There's nothing like annoying the wine makers when they're really busy!) The good news is that the 2008 vintage is looking good, with lots of grapes still hanging as of October 1st. The better news is that some of the 2007's are remarkable.
One that's especially worth mentioning is from Heidi Schröck, one of the lights behind Eleven Women and their wine. It's a field blend of white varieties that she's calling Vogelsang. It's a white with arresting concentration and structure and a commanding bouquet of pears and floral notes with an attractive minerality.
Along with her neighbors in Rust, Heidi is still making gorgeous Ausbruch dessert wines (her '06 is a beauty), but whites like this may well steal the show.
Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and the sexy wine and food novel, bang BANG.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Finding Austrian Wine in the US
There's still not a lot of Austrian wine making its way over here. Those pesky Austrians seem to insist on drinking most of it themselves. Fortunately, there are some internet tools that can help. If you live in one of the 'control' states where the distribution of wine is controlled by the government, you usually have a website that shows what's available. In Pennsylvania, that site will also allow you to order wine for delivery to a store near you.
In the rest of the country, you can use a site like WineAccess.com to search for wine by country, region, grape type or winery name. Your results will show you who stocks the wine and will compare prices. Of course, since this is a national database, it may not help you to know that the St. Laurent of your dreams is available in Texas if you live in New Jersey, but even if you're not within driving distance, many retailers are glad to ship within the continental US.
In the rest of the country, you can use a site like WineAccess.com to search for wine by country, region, grape type or winery name. Your results will show you who stocks the wine and will compare prices. Of course, since this is a national database, it may not help you to know that the St. Laurent of your dreams is available in Texas if you live in New Jersey, but even if you're not within driving distance, many retailers are glad to ship within the continental US.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Grüner Veltliner Gets Dirty
Deep in the middle of the novel bang BANG, there's this guy Cardoso. He's not really in the center of the action, but until he is, we watch him cook a seductive dinner for the woman of his dreams. Her name is Concetta, Connie and she's radically candid-open, that is, a woman incapable-no, not interested in- the ordinary deceits that make ordinary life possible.
So he, disabled he, cooks her asparagus. Little skinny phallic asparagus. It's not exactly a dirty joke, it's just a pointer. Here's how it goes:
He picks some really skinny spears, three-quarters of a pencil, breaks off the woody part. He puts some water in a broad shallow pan and a steamer basket over the water. The 'ragus goes in as soon as the water boils, cover goes on. Two minutes, the crunch is soft, yielding but still fresh and live, just like, well never mind. Then the whole pan goes in the sink and the cold water rushes over and the sulfur smell is washed down the drain. Cardoso, who's now thinking about Connie so intensely that it's hard for him to remember the ordinary thing that he wants to do. But the green reminds him and he hits the dried pan with a shredded garlic comma and some butter and a squirt of olive oil from this little cylinder that would remind him of something if he weren't immersed in the dairy-tree smell coming off the pan as it heats and the cold bright green hits it with a bitty squeal.
Shaking the pan the pan's shaking him back roasting browns getting to them both. A spoonful A of his forearm and then out and on to a plate.
Salt. By God salt. There's a Grüner Veltliner from some guy he knows in Austria and he doesn't pour it in the pan, but in the glass and he looks at her and she's laughing like a crazy person who's used to being nuts, no big deal and he puts the plate between them and she reaches for a spear and smiling wickedly bites the damn head off.
Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and of course, the novel bangBANG.
So he, disabled he, cooks her asparagus. Little skinny phallic asparagus. It's not exactly a dirty joke, it's just a pointer. Here's how it goes:
He picks some really skinny spears, three-quarters of a pencil, breaks off the woody part. He puts some water in a broad shallow pan and a steamer basket over the water. The 'ragus goes in as soon as the water boils, cover goes on. Two minutes, the crunch is soft, yielding but still fresh and live, just like, well never mind. Then the whole pan goes in the sink and the cold water rushes over and the sulfur smell is washed down the drain. Cardoso, who's now thinking about Connie so intensely that it's hard for him to remember the ordinary thing that he wants to do. But the green reminds him and he hits the dried pan with a shredded garlic comma and some butter and a squirt of olive oil from this little cylinder that would remind him of something if he weren't immersed in the dairy-tree smell coming off the pan as it heats and the cold bright green hits it with a bitty squeal.
Shaking the pan the pan's shaking him back roasting browns getting to them both. A spoonful A of his forearm and then out and on to a plate.
Salt. By God salt. There's a Grüner Veltliner from some guy he knows in Austria and he doesn't pour it in the pan, but in the glass and he looks at her and she's laughing like a crazy person who's used to being nuts, no big deal and he puts the plate between them and she reaches for a spear and smiling wickedly bites the damn head off.
Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine and of course, the novel bangBANG.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)