Dan Tisch called, and we came. Hes been on an Austrian rampage recently, as far as I can tell, and he summoned a few of the more dedicated NYC fans of Austrian wine for an early Sunday dinner at Momofuku Ssam bar. Bob D. and Renee were already there when I arrived, 10 minutes early, and it was a good thing since we had various table trouble. The staff were very kind and solicitous, and we wound up at the L-shaped table right in front of the door, where everyone who came in was just a little weirded out by all the bottles on our table.
I wont describe the foodwe ordered off the menu, mostly fish, and it was uniformly tasty. But we had some pretty damn good wines and learned a thing or two, or at least I did.
The early arrivers had a quick huddle about wine order and so on, and we agreed: Riesling first, GV second, and in this case I acceded to an oldest-to-youngest tasting, not my typical preference. But some of these wines were so old that there was considerable risk theyd be shot, so we thought wed get them out of the way and move onto firmer ground for dinner.
For a first wine, Kirk brought 1996 Nikolaihof Steiner Hund Riesling Kabinett
We thought wed start with a lighter wine from a notoriously lean vintage. Ive never seen another vintage of Steiner Hund with a Kabinett designation, and actually, Id never seen this one before either. 1996 was cool, and I believe there was also rain at the harvest, so the wines tend to be lean and somewhat acidic. Some very good producers deacidified that year. This wine had a fabulous, clean, stony Riesling nose. It was indeed lean on the palate, but holding well, and quite a nice drop. I wouldnt age any remaining bottles expecting improvement, but I was pleasantly surprised. You know, even Hirtzberger Singerriedel is on the downslope in 96 IMO, so this was doing very well indeed.
We then opened my one bottle of 1961 Hirtzberger Riesling Hochrain Spaetlese.
Sourced from Austria a few years ago, the bottle had a couple of inches of ullage. The cork was actually pretty grossit had contracted a bit, and mold had grown between the cork and the glass part way down. I used up a couple of napkins cleaning the neck of the bottle, and decanted the wine, but the moldy flavors were into the wine and there was no getting them out. It wasnt exactly like being corked, but it was definitely in that direction. Which was too bad, because under the funk there was a very pretty wine, and one that wasnt nearly as OTH as most of us had feared. Im easily ready to give Austrian Riesling 25 years, but 50 seems on the high side. This was beautiful wine, golden but not brown, complex and pretty except for the faade of mold. So Riesling may have more room to run than you might expect. The wine did fade and darken with air, so I wouldnt go nuts keeping such things, but dont imagine that they cant be good.
The next wine was of uncertain vintage, thought to be 1979 Rudi Pichler Riesling Spaetlese Somethingorotherer. No vineyard designation, and a label with Gruner Veltliner crossed out and riesling [edited to correct, thanks Kirk] hand-written in across the top. Quite delicious, fresh, fabulous, yum. Great yellow fruit aromatics, a light impression, Kirk thought it perhaps the prettiest wine of the night.
The 1994 FX Pichler Durnsteiner Kellerberg Riesling Smaragd should have all its description in bold type, because this was a bold wine in true FXP style. The one wine of the night that brought ethanol into a description for me, it nonetheless showed remarkable balance and poise in a powerful wine. Its probably not something Id buy in mass quantities today, but I dont mind still having a few.
A vintage head fake brought up 1993 Knoll Pfaffenberg Riesling Spaetlese. This one didnt work for me. I said grapefruit, my companion said, grapefruit air freshener. Something happened here, and I for one dont know what.
We then had a mini vertical of Hirtzberger Singerriedel Riesling Smaragds.
The 1992 rocked my world, and was my favorite of the three. I like 1992 a lot in the Wachau, Ive had a number of wines with great structure and balance, and this was an exemplar. Just a little spritz, a fabulous nose, not too big, not too much, but lovely structure and balance and it kept unfolding in the glass until it was gone.
The 1995 had less botrytis than other 95s, but the noble rot was still evident on the nose. I find a number of recent 95s to be aging poorly, the botrytis isnt showing so well with time. Ive mostly drunk mine up. But this was a really fine bottle, considerably younger than I expected, its probably got 5 good years in it based on this showing.
The 1997 is amazingly intense stuff. Three bottles of wine compressed into one. Great balance, even ripeness, aromatic complexity without being at all old or tired. To my taste, this is just a little fat and unstructured in the finish, but I was in the minority on that complaint. Clearly great wine with a long future.
We had a Champagne interlude thanks to Jonathan, 2003 Varnier-Fanniere Grand Vintage. I am no judge of Champagne, but this was ripe, open, exotic, a little soft. Powerful, but not for the ages. An interesting artifact from the extreme 2003 vintage.
A further interlude included 1994 Zull Schrattenthaler Aussere Bergen Roter Veltliner, which totally perplexed me. RV to me is often big and ripe and soft. This was 11% even in a ripe vintage like 94. What happened here? No real idea.
Interlude concluded, we moved on to GV. Rob brought a remarkable bottle, 1947 Freie Weingartner Durnsteiner Kellerberg GV. Think back to 1947 in Austria. The Third Man. Rationing. Amazing that they could find bottles and corks. Tough times. This bottle had 4 or more inches of ullage, and a funky old cork. The funky old cork has let this wine down, sadly. It has a bit of rs, considerable oxidation, it's pretty brown, has some fruit, some apparent botrytis, but for me it was hard to tell what was behind this. Too bad about the cork on this. If some of the bottles had better corks you could imagine that this could still be good wine.
Though I praise my own contribution, I was extremely pleased by the showing of 1971 Hirtzberger Honivogl GV Spaetlese. Spectacular. Dang, this is great say my notes. Complex floral aromatics, open beautiful, some va, some botrytis perhaps, but I loved it. I dont think I could have called it blind as GV, or guessed another grape, except that there was a textural and flavor note on the finish that might have given this away to a more experienced blind taster. Ive previously opened another bottle of this that was considerably inferior to the bottle last night.
The 1993 Knoll Loibenberg GV Auslese surprised me with its fairly high residual sugar. Beautiful yellow fruits, a very long finish, but I was not adapting as fast this late in the evening, and the rs threw me as far as notes and analysis went.
A good counterpoint to the 1995 Singerriedel, we had the 1995 Hirtzberger GV Honivogl. A great nose, not OTT botrytis, vigorous, long, this wine is in great shape and again confounds my expectations of 1995.
I dont think we had a perfect bottle of 1986 Knoll GV Loibenberg Honifogl. I couldnt smell TCA, but the wine was just a little muted and clipped in the nose in a way that I would not have expected from this wine. Nice acid, good body, I feel strongly that another bottle would be better.
Our flexibility was again challenged by a 1988 FX Pichler Neuberger Somethingorotherer. [edited to correct vintage] Crazily aromatic, not old or OTH, interesting not-too-acidic structure, but a little lost among the big guns here.
An old friend showed very well. The 1991 Nikolaihof GV Vinothek was the most open and friendly Id ever seen it. It was in the decanter for more than an hour, in and out of the ice bucket, but it was just great. Finally, the wine is showing aromatic complexity along with its great freshness and minerality. Ill have to try one of my bottles soon to see whether this was a fluke.
All in all, a memorable night with some great wines. I had expected a far higher casualty rate, particularly with older Riesling, but with the possible exception of the 86 Knoll and the special case of the 61 Hochrain, we were very lucky. A happy and satisfied crew spilled out into the warm evening on 2nd Avenue, and I for one had a lovely walk home. Not too many nights in November that are shorts weather in NYC.
I wont describe the foodwe ordered off the menu, mostly fish, and it was uniformly tasty. But we had some pretty damn good wines and learned a thing or two, or at least I did.
The early arrivers had a quick huddle about wine order and so on, and we agreed: Riesling first, GV second, and in this case I acceded to an oldest-to-youngest tasting, not my typical preference. But some of these wines were so old that there was considerable risk theyd be shot, so we thought wed get them out of the way and move onto firmer ground for dinner.
For a first wine, Kirk brought 1996 Nikolaihof Steiner Hund Riesling Kabinett
We thought wed start with a lighter wine from a notoriously lean vintage. Ive never seen another vintage of Steiner Hund with a Kabinett designation, and actually, Id never seen this one before either. 1996 was cool, and I believe there was also rain at the harvest, so the wines tend to be lean and somewhat acidic. Some very good producers deacidified that year. This wine had a fabulous, clean, stony Riesling nose. It was indeed lean on the palate, but holding well, and quite a nice drop. I wouldnt age any remaining bottles expecting improvement, but I was pleasantly surprised. You know, even Hirtzberger Singerriedel is on the downslope in 96 IMO, so this was doing very well indeed.
We then opened my one bottle of 1961 Hirtzberger Riesling Hochrain Spaetlese.
Sourced from Austria a few years ago, the bottle had a couple of inches of ullage. The cork was actually pretty grossit had contracted a bit, and mold had grown between the cork and the glass part way down. I used up a couple of napkins cleaning the neck of the bottle, and decanted the wine, but the moldy flavors were into the wine and there was no getting them out. It wasnt exactly like being corked, but it was definitely in that direction. Which was too bad, because under the funk there was a very pretty wine, and one that wasnt nearly as OTH as most of us had feared. Im easily ready to give Austrian Riesling 25 years, but 50 seems on the high side. This was beautiful wine, golden but not brown, complex and pretty except for the faade of mold. So Riesling may have more room to run than you might expect. The wine did fade and darken with air, so I wouldnt go nuts keeping such things, but dont imagine that they cant be good.
The next wine was of uncertain vintage, thought to be 1979 Rudi Pichler Riesling Spaetlese Somethingorotherer. No vineyard designation, and a label with Gruner Veltliner crossed out and riesling [edited to correct, thanks Kirk] hand-written in across the top. Quite delicious, fresh, fabulous, yum. Great yellow fruit aromatics, a light impression, Kirk thought it perhaps the prettiest wine of the night.
The 1994 FX Pichler Durnsteiner Kellerberg Riesling Smaragd should have all its description in bold type, because this was a bold wine in true FXP style. The one wine of the night that brought ethanol into a description for me, it nonetheless showed remarkable balance and poise in a powerful wine. Its probably not something Id buy in mass quantities today, but I dont mind still having a few.
A vintage head fake brought up 1993 Knoll Pfaffenberg Riesling Spaetlese. This one didnt work for me. I said grapefruit, my companion said, grapefruit air freshener. Something happened here, and I for one dont know what.
We then had a mini vertical of Hirtzberger Singerriedel Riesling Smaragds.
The 1992 rocked my world, and was my favorite of the three. I like 1992 a lot in the Wachau, Ive had a number of wines with great structure and balance, and this was an exemplar. Just a little spritz, a fabulous nose, not too big, not too much, but lovely structure and balance and it kept unfolding in the glass until it was gone.
The 1995 had less botrytis than other 95s, but the noble rot was still evident on the nose. I find a number of recent 95s to be aging poorly, the botrytis isnt showing so well with time. Ive mostly drunk mine up. But this was a really fine bottle, considerably younger than I expected, its probably got 5 good years in it based on this showing.
The 1997 is amazingly intense stuff. Three bottles of wine compressed into one. Great balance, even ripeness, aromatic complexity without being at all old or tired. To my taste, this is just a little fat and unstructured in the finish, but I was in the minority on that complaint. Clearly great wine with a long future.
We had a Champagne interlude thanks to Jonathan, 2003 Varnier-Fanniere Grand Vintage. I am no judge of Champagne, but this was ripe, open, exotic, a little soft. Powerful, but not for the ages. An interesting artifact from the extreme 2003 vintage.
A further interlude included 1994 Zull Schrattenthaler Aussere Bergen Roter Veltliner, which totally perplexed me. RV to me is often big and ripe and soft. This was 11% even in a ripe vintage like 94. What happened here? No real idea.
Interlude concluded, we moved on to GV. Rob brought a remarkable bottle, 1947 Freie Weingartner Durnsteiner Kellerberg GV. Think back to 1947 in Austria. The Third Man. Rationing. Amazing that they could find bottles and corks. Tough times. This bottle had 4 or more inches of ullage, and a funky old cork. The funky old cork has let this wine down, sadly. It has a bit of rs, considerable oxidation, it's pretty brown, has some fruit, some apparent botrytis, but for me it was hard to tell what was behind this. Too bad about the cork on this. If some of the bottles had better corks you could imagine that this could still be good wine.
Though I praise my own contribution, I was extremely pleased by the showing of 1971 Hirtzberger Honivogl GV Spaetlese. Spectacular. Dang, this is great say my notes. Complex floral aromatics, open beautiful, some va, some botrytis perhaps, but I loved it. I dont think I could have called it blind as GV, or guessed another grape, except that there was a textural and flavor note on the finish that might have given this away to a more experienced blind taster. Ive previously opened another bottle of this that was considerably inferior to the bottle last night.
The 1993 Knoll Loibenberg GV Auslese surprised me with its fairly high residual sugar. Beautiful yellow fruits, a very long finish, but I was not adapting as fast this late in the evening, and the rs threw me as far as notes and analysis went.
A good counterpoint to the 1995 Singerriedel, we had the 1995 Hirtzberger GV Honivogl. A great nose, not OTT botrytis, vigorous, long, this wine is in great shape and again confounds my expectations of 1995.
I dont think we had a perfect bottle of 1986 Knoll GV Loibenberg Honifogl. I couldnt smell TCA, but the wine was just a little muted and clipped in the nose in a way that I would not have expected from this wine. Nice acid, good body, I feel strongly that another bottle would be better.
Our flexibility was again challenged by a 1988 FX Pichler Neuberger Somethingorotherer. [edited to correct vintage] Crazily aromatic, not old or OTH, interesting not-too-acidic structure, but a little lost among the big guns here.
An old friend showed very well. The 1991 Nikolaihof GV Vinothek was the most open and friendly Id ever seen it. It was in the decanter for more than an hour, in and out of the ice bucket, but it was just great. Finally, the wine is showing aromatic complexity along with its great freshness and minerality. Ill have to try one of my bottles soon to see whether this was a fluke.
All in all, a memorable night with some great wines. I had expected a far higher casualty rate, particularly with older Riesling, but with the possible exception of the 86 Knoll and the special case of the 61 Hochrain, we were very lucky. A happy and satisfied crew spilled out into the warm evening on 2nd Avenue, and I for one had a lovely walk home. Not too many nights in November that are shorts weather in NYC.