Kahlua Coffee Cream TDN (Thursday Drink Night)

Last night we held TDN at the Mixoloseum, a chat room of the bloggers, by the bloggers and for the people. About 40 cocktailians convened in cyberspace for an advance taste the new Kahlua Coffee Cream and create and share new drink concepts. For those not familiar with TDN it's a great program developed by the OCSWG (Online Cocktail and Spirits Writers Guild), a consortium of 20 or so of the top cocktail bloggers.

TDN is open to anyone and the model is to feature a particular spirit, have attendees create drinks, post them live in a chat room and compare, contrast, discuss. There's a parallel twitter feed with the recipes (@Mixoloseum) and last night we also had a live video feed from Malo bar in LA where we hosted a barful of LA cocktail enthusiasts and local bloggers. Matt Robold of Rumdood organized the physical event at Malo in L.A. and Gabriel Szazko of Cocktail Nerd and Rick Stutz of Kaiser Penguin. Sam Harrigan of Cocktail Culture worked with Matt to set the gig up. We also had a videographer there and will be making a video for posting on YouTube shortly. Andy Nash, Marketing Director at Pernod Ricard for Kahlua (and Pernod Absinthe)joined to answer questions about the limited edition product (only available in O/N/D this year and officially launching to the public next week. KCC is made from real coffee beans grown, roasted and brewed in Mexico.

What I particularly like about TDN is the collaboration we've had with the blogger community. We've turned it into a Social Media Marketing program that benefits the bloggers, their readers as well as the brand. Great interactive content in multiple media channels, appropriately commercial but not too, and a whole lot of fun for the cocktail community. Everybody wins.

There's a counterpart on the wine side called Twitter Taste Live, and we'll be working on that for Jacob's Creek wines over the next few months. Oh, and speaking of Jacob's Creek, we're holding a "Meet the Winemakers" tasting in NY on Monday next week (Sept. 14) for bloggers and the trade. If you're interested in attending please let me know and I'll fill you in on the details. Sphere: Related Content

Do Medals Matter?

Alder Yarrow of Vinography and Tyler Colman of Dr. Vino both posted today disparaging the value of medals from wine competitions based on a study published in the Journal of Wine Economics by Robert Hodgson professor emeritus of oceanography at Humboldt State University.

I commented on both posts from the perspective of a marketing guy. Bottom line, while Dr. Hodgson's paper makes a compelling point, it ignores the more practical side of the business.

In the U.S. the three-tier system has effectively put a roadblock in front of products from new or small producers. Without the leverage of the big multinationals at the distributor and by extension the retail level, the big challenge is not to produce a quality product; that's simple (but not easy!). Rather it's how to get through the distributor and retailer gatekeepers to get the product on the shelf and in front of the consumer.

And in both spirits and wine, a medal--whatever its provenance--is often an effective tool to get the retailer and distributor to take on the product. It is third party validation of quality that a small supplier can bring to bear that his own economic clout can't.

So at the end of the day, do medals mean anything even if they are not statistically valid evaluatons of product quality?

Call me narrow minded, but my answer is yes. So we recommend our clients take the practical conclusion from Dr. Hodgson's paper...that winning a Gold is a matter of chance as much as quality...and enter as many competitions as they can, and promote the gold medals they get to the trade. And once they get a gold...don't enter the competition again.

Need proof of this strategy? Look at Grey Goose. They won a gold from the BTI in 1998 and rode that medal to a $2 Billion sale. Valid award? Maybe. Good marketing strategy? You bet!

So, my POV is that in today's marketplace, a gold medal is a necessary but not sufficient tool. What Grey Goose did was brilliant for its time, but its not a repeatable strategy by new competitors.

The role of a medal in today's market is more for the trade than consumer...a tool (just one of many you'll need) to convince a distributor or retailer that your brand warrants a place on the shelf. Sphere: Related Content

Wine vs. Spirits

How come when we taste wine we spit and when we taste spirits we swallow? Sphere: Related Content

Tales Presentation: Blogs

Here's a link to the presentation on working with Blogs that I made at Tales of the Cocktail last month in New Orleans on the Panel moderated by Paul Clarke and Bobbie Heugel of Drink Dogma: http://www.slideshare.net/Steveraye/working-with-blogs-by-steve-raye-at-tales-of-the-cocktail.

The key strategy is:

Sphere: Related Content

U.S. Drinks Conference 2009

The U.S. Drinks conference is coming to NY Oct. 13 and 14.If you are new to the US Beverage Alcohol market, currently exporting spirits, wine or beer products to the U.S. or are considering introducing new domestic brands, then the US Drinks Conference 2009 is a “must-attend” event.

In two information-packed days you’ll get the knowledge and strategies you need to successfully navigate the entry and growth in the American Drinks market.

• Strategies you can use right now to grow your brands.
• Learn the things to do…and NOT do…to be successful in America
• Network with spirits, wine and beer suppliers who are making it happen in the U.S. today.
• The most current market data: just-released research on the market structure and U.S. consumer trends on and off-trade.

Conference Details

Date: Oct. 13 & 14, 2009
Location: Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, 36 Central Park South, New York City
Cost: $795
Registration Details: www.USDrinksConference.com
Contact: +1.913.544.113
dmenefee@usdrinksconference.com Sphere: Related Content

Serendipity in Athens

We had the fortunate opportunity to be crossing paths at the Athens airport last week with David Rosengarten of the erstwhile Food TV show "Taste" and George Athanas and Sophia Perpera of All About Greek Wine. David and I had first met at a series of tastings of Greek and Chilean wines in NY. Turned out we were both going to be in Greece at the same time with a window of opportunity to share Frappe's and Cappuccino Freddo's with George and Sophia. Sphere: Related Content

OMG, ANOTHER Cocktail!

The day dawned clear and bright punctuated by the sound of the fire trucks hosing down the streets from the night before. One more day to go, so we started off with dessert, I mean breakfast, at Brennans with Jonas Halpren of Drink of the Week (who also happens to be a mucketymuck at Federated Media.) We also saw Jeffrey Becker and his wife Jane Scott there.

If you've never done it, Breakfast at Brennans is a NOLA must...the classic meal is an order of baked apple swimming in triple cream, then Eggs Hussar, Brennan's twist on Egg's Benedict, and then to top it all off, Banana's Foster, flaming dessert of bananas, ice cream and more cream. It's a healthy breakfast though...think of all the fruit. After that, you don't have to eat for a week. Unfortunately we had two other big meals planned that day, so we started to work off the calories with some hand to mouth exercises at the seminars.

I attended Robert Hess's seminar on the History of Alcohol which was quite stimulating (hehe) and then it was time for yet another meal, this time with Colleen Graham of About.com and her husband at Luke on St. Charles Ave. I had a light meal of soft shell crab BLT with fries. Coming from Cedar Falls IA, Colleen was interested in all the publicity about the NY Cocktail bars like PDT, Death & Co., Pegu Club et al. Another fun conversation learning about how Colleen's needs differ from many of the other bloggers...she's already figured out how to monetize her writing...she just needs the help in building traffic and click-throughs (Maybe a hyperlink to her site will help....you should visit and click through on a link).

I then attended a fascinating seminar on the history of Absinthe moderated by Simon Difford and with Ted Breaux as panelist. Simon may protest he doesn't like to speak in public, but he sure knows his stuff. He's also one of the nicest guys in the business. Good thing that he decided to shave his head...now we can tell the difference between him and Simon Ford.

But we're not done yet...off to Emeril's restaurant NOLA for dinner with Matt Robold of Rumdood and his girlfriend. Boy, I thought I talked a lot. Matt recognizes he's got a problem...you just can't get him to shut up...but he's in therapy for it (I'll tell you his dirty little secret...he ordered a Cosmo...it was pink. And I don't think it worked.) I ordered a fabulous bottle of Domane Wachau Gruner Veltliner Federspiel 2007 and nobody wanted to talk about it. This was definitely a spirits gig and wine was of no interest whatsoever (hey, they're wussies...they spit!)

Pernod's Spirit Awards were held at Harrah's again and Marissa Frisina and Shawn Kelly topped their efforts from Wed. nite with an absolutely bangup show. Lots of fun, lots of awards, lots of camaraderie...and lots of liquor!

I had hoped to call it a night, but duty called. Sam and I taxi'd over to the Mixo house to say goodbye to the gang, and then it was off to the Bartender's Breakfast back in the Quarter. For the THIRD TIME Shawn and Marisa hit a home run at one of the most beautiful locations for a party I've ever been in. Everyone was there with celebrities mixing the drinks including many of the night's award winners.

I was chatting with Steve Olson of AKA Wine Geek and write Dave Wondrich two founders of BAR and we all agreed this was like a college fraternity reunion on steroids.

And so to bed.

At least for me...I had a 7AM flight out of MSY the next day and was on the same plane as Steve Olson...we exchanged some hoarse hello's and Steve told me he never even went to bed..."That's what planes are for." Too true. Sphere: Related Content

Tales Tattles Day 3: "If by Whiskey"

So now we're getting into the swing of things...I had done a little spirits training on Tues. nite at PDT in NY, and we now have two more days of drinking beginning at breakfast when it dawned on me. How come in the wine biz there are spit buckets all over the place and nobody swallows, but in the spirits bidness there are none to be found? The people I asked said because the spirits folks are more fun...I wonder if that is a cause or effect?

We attended a fun seminar run by Charlotte Voisey of Hendrick's where they did readings of cocktail references in literature, from Kafka's Metamorphosis (in full cockroach costume no less!) to my favorite, "If by Whiskey" which I'll paste at the end of this post. I had used it as an intro to some presentations I used to make in my days of legit work at Heublein.

And while I was laughing at the lit references and tidying up the ppt for my presentation in the next half hour when BOOM, my computer froze! Luckily we were able to retrieve the file through the efforts of the always reliable Anthony King back at the home office.


A Sold-Out SRO Crowd!

The session I participated in was on using Blogs.
It was moderated by the newly hirsute Paul Clarke of Cocktail Chronicles
and Serious Eats and originally planned to have Jeffrey Morgenthaler as well, but he had to bail at the last minute for some paying client responsibilities. Bobby Heugel of Drink Dogma was kind enough to fill Jeff's rather large shoes and gave us some really good insights from the other side of stick. Lindsey Johnson and Leo Borowskiy of Lush Life NY were doing live video streaming of the session.




We skipped dinner that night and moseyed on over to the W Hotel, site of the On the Fly Competition (more like the running of the bulls in Pamplona) ostensibly run by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, but it seemed to me like it was run by the inmates of the TOTC asylum. We saw Chantal, bartendress extraordinaire from Vessel in Seattle there, and then later again that night at Napolean House, and she was also at Herbsaint...was she following me?

Then off to Pat O'Brien's on the river for the Leblon affair...some 20 stations manned by the USBG superstars each with their own cocktail concept. I liked the one with candied hibiscus flowers best. Steve Luttman and Jamie Keller had the crowd well in hand aided by a bouncer at the door brandishing a giant stick of sugar cane at misbehaving revelers.

My mission on this trip was to have a Sazerac at Napolean House which for some reason was never open when I went by last year. We finally lucked out (maybe they didn't know I was planning on coming) and I chowed down on a half Muffalatta while Sam made do with soup, salad and a Pimm's Cup.

And so to bed.




If By Whiskey

Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr., to the Mississippi House, April 4, 1952.
(Don't ya just love the guy's name! Perfect for Mississippi and New Orleans in July)
I’ll take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it may be. You have asked me how I feel about whisky; well Brother, here’s where I stand:

If by whisky, you mean the Devil’s brew the Poison scourge, the bloody monster that defies innocence, dethrones reason, creates misery and poverty, yea literally takes the break out of the mouths of babes; if you mean the Evil Drink that topples men and women from the pinnacles of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of despair, degradation, shame, helplessness and hopelessness---then I am certainly against it with all my power.

But if by whisky, you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine and ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts, laughter on their lips and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean that sterling drink that puts the spring in an old man’s steps on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasury untold millions of dollars which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our pitifully aged and infirm and to build our highways, hospitals and schools—then Brother, I am for it. This is my stand. Sphere: Related Content

Tattles from Tales, Day 2

Thursday started out promising and we were sauntering off to the Royal Sonesta for breakfast with Camper English of Alcademics(who was nominated for best cocktail writer, but unfortunately didn't win)when we heard some honking and looked up to see a "honey wagon" spewing a fire-hydrant-at-full-blast volume of raw sewage onto the street and sidewalk. Luckily we didn't get hit, but when the stench hit us, Sam almost gagged, and we had serious doubts about being able to make it through the miasma to the hotel. We did persevere and so now "eau de New Orleans" is forever etched in our brainstems, right next to the smell of the first overdose of Tequila...blaawwwwwghhhhh!

We had some really good idea sharing with Camper on how we can help bloggers and particularly find ways to monetize their sites.

Lunch at Herbsaint on St. Charles was with Gabriel "Cocktail Nerd" and Joanna Szazko and Rick Stutz of Kaiser Penguin, board members of the OCSWG --they've GOT to come up with a better name--continuing the convo on how marketers and bloggers can work together for mutual benefit. (We've got lots of good ideas, but you'll have to hire us if you want me to share them.) The food was spectacular and we went on a streetcar ride
through the garden district for a real sense of the best New Orleans has to offer in terms of ambience and architecture. We were hot and sweaty, but according to the locals, only about 95, "but you should have been here last week...over 100...now THAT's hot!")

We got back too late to make the Leblon event, but I did sign the Declaration of Independence that Steve Luttman was carrying around to get the law changed to make Cachaca a legal category in the U.S.

We had dinner at Arnaud's, a sentimental site for me in N'awlins because it was my Dad's favorite and I had always hoped I'd be able to share dinner with him there, but it was not to be. Anyway, we had a fabulous time with Cheri Loughlin of Intoxicologist and her significant other Tory over crawfish and Cordon Rouge. We gave Cheri some ideas on site metrics and learned a lot about her blog.

Then it was back to the Monteleone for cocktails with Bob DeKuyper (yes, THAT DeKuyper...something like 8th generation and this pick was taken Tues of that week at PDT which went on to win the Best Cocktail Bar in America)Ivan Menting and Albert deHeer. Darcy O'Neil of Art of Drink joined us for a drink and he and I wandered back to the other theme subject of the event...is fructose (as in HFCS) pronounced "Fruck" or "Frook". The conversation was so boring that even our blogger friends turned their backs on us. Yikes, I just realized I'm a geek!

And so to bed. (and for those of you who get the reference to Samuel Pepys, you'd enjoy the comment that one of the seminar speakers was talking about "Peepies" diary. My mom kept one of those but now I'm potty trained.)

G'night y'all! Sphere: Related Content

Tales of the Cocktail Day 1

Wow! TOTC is back, bigger and better. There are thousands of people in sweltering NOLA to engage, celebrate, sample and converse on a common theme...cocktails! Seemed like half the people on the plane down from NY were attending the conference. I made the mistake of consuming a bit too much alcohol at a dinner Tues. nite with some friends from Holland and it took all of yesterday to recover. Not the best way to start a week of drinking.

HQ for the event is the historic Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter, and if you just stand in the lobby of the hotel long enough, you'll see EVERYONE in the business pass by. My day started with lunch with Paul Clarke, Darcy O'Neil and some of the folks from Vessel in Seattle. I'm speaking on Paul's panel on blogging on Friday and we mapped out a plan for the presentation...it's sold out and the room holds 250 people. Darcy and I sort of geeked out the geeks on cocktail arcana and ended up engaged in a fascinating conversation that bored everyone else to tears.

I'm here with our spirit SMM guru, Sam Harrigan and we spent the afternoon looking for some ingredients for a recipe contest review we were holding later in the evening.

It's great fun running into folks from all over the world who share the same interest...Tiare Olsen is in from Sweden, Jay Hepburn from London, our Dutch friends are here, the Chartreuse people are in from France, Mike Ginley was here with clients from Japan.

First official event was the Tito's Vodka tasting...Tito Beveridge (yes, that's his real name) has done an awesome job of breaking the rules and making new ones on the way to bringing his artisanal vodka onto the national stage.

We attended the TOTC opening reception sponsored by Beefeater...what a blowout. Kudos to Shawn Kelly and Marissa Frisina of Pernod Ricard...they pulled out all the stops. Then it was on to the CSOWG (Cocktail and Spirits Online Writers Guild) house on Rampart Street where many of the bloggers gathered for some break time and where we selected the winner for the OVAL vodka infusion contest. Way to go Marshall with a honey, cilantro infusion! Some 50 or so spirit bloggers were in and out including Camper English, Matt Robold, Gabriel Szasko, Darcy, Sean Mike, Marshall Frawley, Stevi Deter and...and...and. Oh, and Gabe's wife Joanna did some spectacular hostessing...those burger were fabuloso!

Lindsey Johnson and Leo Borovskiy of Lush Life NY hosted a "Tweet Up" just down the street at Bar Tonique which attracted an really interesting mix of folks. Again, all shared the same interest of connecting via Social Media to share the enjoyment of cocktails and spirits. Lindsey's doing some real groundbreaking SMM marketing stuff especially with video and Twitter, and we're looking forward to working together with her.

On the way back to the hotel I was pelted by beads from a balcony tossed by(no I didn't take my shirt off) Mike Ginley and the folks from Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt. And so to bed. Sphere: Related Content

Banned in Beijng?

I've been corresponding with Ding Yan, publisher of a wine magazine in China via Sino-Overseas Grapevine & Wine who I met on the Austrian wine tour. Unfortunately, we just found out he can't access this blog post...or it seems, anything hosted at blogspot. I suspect it's part of China's attempt at controlling access to the internet. I didn't realize my blog was so politically incorrect. Sphere: Related Content

Food Friendly Wines of Austria Day 3

We next got to visit the single vineyard Singerriedl which is one of the best in the region. Vines here are planted in narrow rows that climb up the mountain in terraces held up by mortarless rock wells many of which are 10 feet tall….all painstakingly built and maintained by generations of winemakers the old fashioned way…by hand. To get a sense of just how difficult it is to grow wine here, a typical vineyard in the Wachau valley floor requires 700 hours of labor per hectare to produce a crop. On the hillsides it’s 2000. And the view! Standing 400 meters above the Danube looking up river as it winds its way down from the Alps, with castles and fortresses dotting the peaks of the steep hills skirted with vineyards, each row separated by 10 foot high stone walls. I’m telling you folks, you can’t make this stuff up…you just have to see it.
We were then treated to a cruise down the Danube from the very west end of where the vineyards are planted in the Wachau while sampling wines served by the vintners as we passed each of their properties in turn…sip, see the vineyards, hear the winemaker, feel the passion. It doesn’t get much better than this.

And then it did! Because as we rounded the last bend we approached the historic village of Dürnstein. Way up at the tippy-top of the tallest, steepest mountain stands Dürnstein Castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned by King Leopold VI of Austria while being held for ransom back in the 1200’s. It was while Richard was here that his brother, King John signed the Magna Carta…how cool is that! (He ultimately got ransomed which nearly bankrupted Britain and the money was used to build the city walls around Vienna)

We then sauntered along the Danube to a lovely little Gasthouse and noted wine producer named Jamek in Joching. Once again, a family operation with Dad in the kitchen, mom in a Dirndl supervising the service in a flower encircled garden on a lovely spring day with views up through the vineyards. And the food…well, I guess the only word to use is fresh…because everything is and each of the dishes was paired with a selection of single vineyard wines that told the typicity story from the western reaches of the Wachau to the Wienviertel.

Well, we all asked, how are you going to top this. . Willi and his staff organized a party that was truly Imperial. There were three separate groups touring the country. Ours was for Austrian Newbies, and the others went to Styria and Niederosterreich. But for this night, we all gathered together for on e big blowout party.

We went to the Schönbrunn, the palace of the Habsburg emperors which is one of the grandest in Europe. And way up at the top of the hill is a building called the Gloriette, a fabulous Baroque hall that can be seen from every point on the grounds of the palace and itself overlooking the city of Vienna in the distance. A chamber orchestra played Mozart and Strauss while the guests waltzed before dinner. I’m not a dancer, but I couldn’t resist a chance to experience a taste of what life was like for the Emperor of Austria-Hungary by dancing a waltz with Sandra Auernigg of AWMB. We had another fabulous meal with newfound BFFs and sampling another 30 or so wines that showed off the wonderful ability for Austrian wines to pair with such a variety of foods. We were served hors d’ouerves from the countries of many of the guests including Japan, Thailand, Mexico, China and India and saw in one sitting the versatility and creativity of the wines of Austria.

After dinner the music shifted to a jazz band as the wine flowed, the guests danced and talked, and friendships kindled and strengthened. Then, to top off the evening, Willi Klinger
sat down at the piano and rocked the crowd with his unique stylings in three languages including the Beetles and Edit Piaf. We all agreed, Willi has found his calling at the AWMB.


So as I try to distill down the trip to some of its thematic elements, I realized Austrian wines are Wines that define a lifestyle that has developed over a millennium in one of the most beautiful places on earth. And here’s how they’re doing it:
-Grüner Veltliner
-Family
-A sense of place
-Elegance
-Passion
-Beauty Sphere: Related Content

Food Friendly Wines of Austria, Day 2

From there it was on to the lovely town of Eisenstadt where we sampled the regional specialties of Burgenland at the Palace Esterhazy, the country estate of this noble Austro/Hungarian family.

As we drove through the countryside it was fascinating to see very few power lines, the occasional series of windmills, and fields patterned in strips of corn, wheat, and grape vines. Evidently the inheritance laws in Austria, like in Burgundy, are such that land is divided among the children. The result is long, narrow patches owned by different folks. One particular grower had a plot of land that was one row wide by one kilometer long. The vines themselves are planted right up to the road side and behind and adjacent to the houses. I saw many houses where you could reach your arm out the garage window and pick grapes if you were of a mind.

Then it was on to the Leithaberg area which just received a DAC designation. This is the culmination of a program driven by the AWMB to define a set of standards, production processes and quality level similar to AOC in France. There are currently six, and the AWMB’s goal is 16…and I do believe they’ll get there soon.

After that we did a tasting of sweet wines at the Nationalparkzentrum Neusiedlersee in Ilmitz which is dedicated to the natural history and ornithology of this special place which is unique in Europe. This type of area is known as a Steppe Lake and is the home for some 300 species of birds.

Dinner that night was in Neuseidel am See where I was taught how to say cheers in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Malay at the fabulous Nyikospark Restaurant.

Thursday began with a lecture and guided tasting by Suzanne Staggl of AWMB on the wines of Niederosterreich (Lower Austria). The tasting was in a spectacular setting…the banquet hall of the Schloss Hof which is the summer palace build by Prinz Eugen who also built the spectacular Belvedere Palace in Vienna. There we sampled the wines of this region and I had the opportunity to meet Heidemarie Fischer of Pfaffl who is just beginning to import her family’s wines to America through Palm Bay. We also were treated to a short course in how to make Wiener Schnitzel by Suzanne Staggl and Barbara Arbeithuber (who was the guiding hand making the trip such a success) and got to dine on our own creations. This was followed by a tour of the palace and stroll around the fabulous seven levels of gardens which have recently been restored to their 18th century glory

On to the Kremstal, and the city of Krems, in the center of the lower Austria (Niederösterreich region which is Austria’s version of Napa Valley…well, except for the fact that the Wachau part of the region is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Krems has a beautifully preserved old town (Altstadt) with historic churches dating back to the 1200’s and delightfully decorated homes and a village lifestyle that apparently hasn’t changed for centuries. Winding staircases, buildings at crazy angles, all accented by window boxes full of geraniums, cafes serving mélange (Austrian Cappuccino) and strudel, and some of the most pleasant people I’ve met in Europe.

We were then taken up to one of the literal and figurative highlights of the trip…a visit to Stift Göttweig, an 11th century monastery that has the most spectacular view of the entire Danube valley and prime wine regions. From there you can see the whole valley and get a sense of what makes the wines from there so special that maps can only hint at. From the Pannonian Plain and Vienna to the east and south the Danube winds its way up the foothills of the Alps. Each of the wine regions in turn get more mountainous as you go west from Kamptal to Kremstal to Wachau with the vines being planted right up the slopes.

At the monastery we had the opportunity to sample another 20 wines served by the winemakers themselves and get a first hand sense of the passion they put into their product. We tasted Grüners and Rieslings from Kremstal, Kamptal, and Traisental DAC’s and tasted the fruits of the AWMB’s collaborative push with the producers to create regional standards that will define quality for this area long into the future. Of particular note to me was meeting Huber, which is one of the better distributed wines in the U.S. The tasting was held in a fabulous hall with cathedral ceilings painted with frescos from the 1700’s and a view of the Danube Valley that was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

We moved on from there to the town of Mautern in the Wachau for a dinner that my words here simply can’t describe. The proprietor/chef Lisl Wagner-Bacher runs a Michelin Two Star and Gault Millau Three Toque temple to gastronomy, and our group took over the entire restaurant for the night. Every dish left us speechless as they came in course after course of creative reinterpretations of Viennese classics from Tafelspitz Raviolini, Perch dumplings and a raspberry tart fresh from the oven that was to die for. All of course were paired with wines carefully selected by the AWMB and the Bacher’s 5 person sommelier staff to enhance the culinary creations. Turns out Willi used to be Managing Director of Domäne Wachau and had squirreled away 500 bottles of the 99 Loibenberg Riesling. There are now only 489 left! The evening finished with a special treat of fresh local cherry juice topped with an almond meringue…Yowza! Sphere: Related Content

Austrian Wine Tour Day 1

Our trip began with a visit to a classic Heuriger, or local winery/restaurant where they serve the wine the make. So we got to visit with the winemaker and his family who also served as chef, waiter and host for the entourage. The warm welcoming atmosphere of the Heuriger typifies what the Austrian’s call Gemütlichkeit, loosely translated (by me) as meaning: we may not know you, but we’re happy you’re here, you’re welcome and you’re our new best friend…come, let’s eat and drink and talk together!

We sampled a range of classic Austrian dishes from Wiener Schnitzel to Tafelspitz and a bunch of other fabulous foods with names I can’t pronounce or spell. But it doesn’t matter…just point, eat and enjoy. Heuriger have institutionalized the concept of terroir and hospitality…you can only experience it by being there.

The beautiful sunny day started out propitiously but devolved into ominous rumblings turning to crashing thunder and then a steady rain. It didn’t dampen the groups’ spirits as we boarded the boat to take us across the Neuseidlersee, a reed-encircled shallow lake that is the center of the sweet wine region of Austria. The marshy environment is a haven for an incredible diversity of birdlife…and the humid conditions are perfect for the formation of Botrytis cinerea or noble rot. Notably around Rust on the western side of the lake, and Ilmitz on the east, it is the special fungus that is the necessary ingredient to making the classic sweet wines. Not being confined to the restrictive rules of an archaic regulatory system, the Austrians have been able to experiment and apply new ideas to the concept of classic sweet wines. I had had the pleasure of meeting Gerhard Kracher when he visited NY this past winter, and tasting his wines in their village of origin was a special treat.

Rust is a beautiful old city known for the storks nesting on practically every chimney. We visited the Wine Academy of Austria there, housed in a 400 year old tower and gatehouse and stable that defended the city in earlier times and has been refitted as center of wine teaching. Willi Klinger, the Managing Director of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board gave us a very comprehensive and entertaining overview of Austrian wines and the history of production and the innovation that has taken place over the last 30 years.

Then we heard from Christian Zechmeister, one of the more knowledgeable and passionate academy staffers who gave us an in-depth profile of the diversity of wines from Styria (aka Steiermark, the southern province of Austria), and of Burgenland.

All told we tasted 67 different wines today, and we worked our way through indigenous varietals including Grüner Veltliner, Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt, Saint Laurent, and Austria’s own names for Chardonnay (Morillon), Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) and Pinot Noir (Blauburgunder). What came out very clearly to me was a “national style”. Most of the wines including the reds are vinified in stainless steel and never see any oak. The result is very fresh wines balanced with distinctive racy acidity. So I could sense a common character across all the varietals and regions… wines of elegance that express a “sense of place” that are the perfect complement to a wide variety of foods, but particularly the new fusion cuisine. There’s a peppery note that defines Grüner, but I felt it was common in many of the other varietals as well. And I think that’s one element that makes Austrian wines so food-friendly.

And since almost all the wineries are family owned, not part of large companies, the innovation, creativity and passion of the producers comes through loud and clear. Two Grüners from neighboring winemakers share the common characteristics of the grape, but take advantage of the unique microclimate and soils to express a typicity of that place. Sphere: Related Content

Red, White or Green? Discovering the Food-Friendly Wines of Austria

I visited Austria as part of a group of approx. 100 writers, sommeliers and restaurateurs from some 35 countries who were brought together by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board for a total immersion in the state of the wine industry here. (That's me, Willi Klinger the MD of the AWMB and Laurie Tadayon, BAT's social media marketing manager for wine at the Schlosshof.) We all shared an interest in the business of wine and an ability to speak English. Beyond that the diversity of accents and footwear underscored the internationalization of the wine industry.

Relatively unknown in America as a wine producing country, Austria is being recognized by the wine cognoscenti as on being on the cusp of being discovered... A new generation of winemakers is creating wines for a new generation of consumers. Both the wineries and consumers are all looking for the same thing…food friendly wines that express the uniqueness of the place they are made…what the French call “terroir”

And these guys know what they’re doing. Austria has developed a wine industry where it seems everyone has a practical if not academic Masters in Geology with a minor in knowledge of soils, rocks, terrain and weather patterns and their combined impact on making wine.

And because they’re reinventing the industry, they’re doing it with an eye for the future. Fully 16% of Austria’s wine is certified organic and most of the rest (excluding bulk wine) is made with an eye toward limited and minimal intervention. In fact, a growers' group called Vinea Wachau has set standards for its members wines called the Codex Wachau. It strictly (and I mean that in the full Austrian interpretation of “STRICT”) ensures all the wines which carry the Wachau label and the designations of Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd come from very defined geographies and soil and absolutely no manipulation with technology such as microoxygenation, fractionation, chaptalization, concentration or aromatization or the like.

But no story about Austrian wine can be told without beginning and ending with the indigenous varietal that defines the country, Grüner Veltliner. Grüner means Green, and it is one of the most versatile varietals of Vitis vinifera. It represents the largest percentage of production in the country…some 33% of vines. But its personality is very much determined by factors such as the soil it’s grown on, the altitude, and how long it’s left to ripen. Most producers now vinify in stainless and the wine rarely sees oak and it’s these two things that result in the one common element that defines Grüner…the balance of fresh fruit, alcohol and acidity. That’s what makes the wine so food-friendly and prompted one sommelier to ask his customers… “What kind of wine would you like, Red, White or Green?” Sphere: Related Content