Eden Mylunsch
Eden Mylunsch
When one ponders the world's great Sauvignons, the names Dagueneau, Cotat, Haut Brion, Kalin, Cloudy Bay, Duckhorn, Merry Edwards, Peter Michael spring readily to mind (okay, so maybe not the last couple of 'em). However, there've been some really wonderful Sauvignons emanating from the Steiermark region of Austria that definitely give your Poully-Fums and gooseberry/catpea legends a run for their money.
Lots of this stuff isn't even imported into the US for a number of reasons, the primary one being the reason of numbers; these things are relatively expensive in Austria and by the time you factor in the euro-to-dollar transference and the fershlugginer three-tier system, you might as well be buying Montrachet instead of your entry-level Austrian Sauvignon Blanc. Despite this misfortune of the collision between economics and geography, these are wines worth seeking out, particularly those made by Manfred Tement.
The guy knows his shit, and having visited the winery and met his sons, they've got an opportunity to be serious players in the wine dynasty game. Although they make wines that aren't Sauvignon, seeking them out are like buying Bugatti Vienna Sausages; they're well made but not their passion and as such aren't worth paying the premium for the bragging rights inherent in ownership. Not that you can stick frilly toothpicks into a glass of Morillon (not to be confused with Marillion) or that you'd even want to; it's just that the Tement Sauvignon is consistently among the greatest wines of this variety produced on this or any other planet. Okay, so maybe it's a point of mootness because there's no oxygen on other planets and you kind of need oxygen to grow grapes. Bit I digress...
The wines age nicely, particularly those from the Zieregg vineyard. I recently had a 1993 Tement Zieregg that I'd sold to someone back in my salad days as a wine salesperson. It slumbered in his cellar as he drank all sorts of other things. He wound up getting into a deacquisition mode and I wound up with a magnificent bottle that had evolved into a Sauvignon life form incomprehensible by most lovers of the grape.
I was hopeful (although not overly so) when I acquired several bottles of the 1998 Tement Grassnitzberg Sauvignon recently at the kingly price of about $5 per bottle. The vintage was a difficult one, even in Styria, and Grassnitzberg isn't exactly the most exalted vineyard in the Tement quiver but it's certainly not at the Zieregg level. It's by no means a bad site, but think King Harvest ("Dancing in the Moonlight") vs. Steely Dan ("Do It Again"). Both were good but who goes to see King Harvest playing their hits in front of aging hipsters in performance sheds these days? The fine wine world is about potential, is it not?
This '98 opened up my mind as the wine opened up in the glass. It was a lifelike glinty-golden in the glass and had more than a whiff of canned green beans about it immediately after opening. That green turned to honey-drizzled-on-quince as it aired out and some herbal essences formulated aromatically and on the palate. It's got hints of the NZ herbaceousness but not in any way offensively. It's like someone name-checking a buddy in a rap video, as Grassnitzberg also evinces the minerality of the Loire. This goddamn wine keeps forcing you to come back and retaste it. It's like it's Lolita and you're Humbert Humbert. It's the crystal meth of white wine, only without the dental problems. It's coy about it though, more "what's your sign?" than "hello, sailor". It's like buying an old Lamborghini and finding out the quality control was overseen by Mercedes-Benz. It's like going to a Burger King and ordering a Big Mac and they give you an In 'n' Out Double-Double.
And did I mention (like I need to mention?)that Tement's wines are pretty good in the buzz department? It's not a hard buzz - I don't feel like I'll be hungover tomorrow morning or anything, but it's a nice buzz, one that leaves me in complete control of my extremities and typing fingers. This bottle claims 13% alcohol and that feels like an honest number. After being open for about two hours the minerality comes forward as the initial sweetness has melted away. It's tight enough to work as a Muscadet, although if I were tasting it blind right now I might be tempted to guess Jasnieres or even Saint Peray, as it's got some of the aspects one expects to find in Chenin and/or Roussanne, albeit with an herbal overlay that takes it back to Sauvignon territory. A delightful wine for the mind and for the palate, it's definitely taking the edge off a day filled with two trips to the tire shop, three trips to different wine shops; a day filled with nothing having been checked off the 'to-do' list. But I don't care, because this particular bottle of 1998 Tement Sauvignon is delightful.
-Eden (Sattlerhof, Gross, and Neumayer are my favorite Austrian Sauvignons available here in the US; the Neumayer is from Traisental so I have no idea how it'll age but Ludwig N. is a brilliant winemaker so my money is on him being able to make something worth drinking after a decade+ in the cellar. Sattlerhof and Gross should age more gracefully than I will over time)
Lots of this stuff isn't even imported into the US for a number of reasons, the primary one being the reason of numbers; these things are relatively expensive in Austria and by the time you factor in the euro-to-dollar transference and the fershlugginer three-tier system, you might as well be buying Montrachet instead of your entry-level Austrian Sauvignon Blanc. Despite this misfortune of the collision between economics and geography, these are wines worth seeking out, particularly those made by Manfred Tement.
The guy knows his shit, and having visited the winery and met his sons, they've got an opportunity to be serious players in the wine dynasty game. Although they make wines that aren't Sauvignon, seeking them out are like buying Bugatti Vienna Sausages; they're well made but not their passion and as such aren't worth paying the premium for the bragging rights inherent in ownership. Not that you can stick frilly toothpicks into a glass of Morillon (not to be confused with Marillion) or that you'd even want to; it's just that the Tement Sauvignon is consistently among the greatest wines of this variety produced on this or any other planet. Okay, so maybe it's a point of mootness because there's no oxygen on other planets and you kind of need oxygen to grow grapes. Bit I digress...
The wines age nicely, particularly those from the Zieregg vineyard. I recently had a 1993 Tement Zieregg that I'd sold to someone back in my salad days as a wine salesperson. It slumbered in his cellar as he drank all sorts of other things. He wound up getting into a deacquisition mode and I wound up with a magnificent bottle that had evolved into a Sauvignon life form incomprehensible by most lovers of the grape.
I was hopeful (although not overly so) when I acquired several bottles of the 1998 Tement Grassnitzberg Sauvignon recently at the kingly price of about $5 per bottle. The vintage was a difficult one, even in Styria, and Grassnitzberg isn't exactly the most exalted vineyard in the Tement quiver but it's certainly not at the Zieregg level. It's by no means a bad site, but think King Harvest ("Dancing in the Moonlight") vs. Steely Dan ("Do It Again"). Both were good but who goes to see King Harvest playing their hits in front of aging hipsters in performance sheds these days? The fine wine world is about potential, is it not?
This '98 opened up my mind as the wine opened up in the glass. It was a lifelike glinty-golden in the glass and had more than a whiff of canned green beans about it immediately after opening. That green turned to honey-drizzled-on-quince as it aired out and some herbal essences formulated aromatically and on the palate. It's got hints of the NZ herbaceousness but not in any way offensively. It's like someone name-checking a buddy in a rap video, as Grassnitzberg also evinces the minerality of the Loire. This goddamn wine keeps forcing you to come back and retaste it. It's like it's Lolita and you're Humbert Humbert. It's the crystal meth of white wine, only without the dental problems. It's coy about it though, more "what's your sign?" than "hello, sailor". It's like buying an old Lamborghini and finding out the quality control was overseen by Mercedes-Benz. It's like going to a Burger King and ordering a Big Mac and they give you an In 'n' Out Double-Double.
And did I mention (like I need to mention?)that Tement's wines are pretty good in the buzz department? It's not a hard buzz - I don't feel like I'll be hungover tomorrow morning or anything, but it's a nice buzz, one that leaves me in complete control of my extremities and typing fingers. This bottle claims 13% alcohol and that feels like an honest number. After being open for about two hours the minerality comes forward as the initial sweetness has melted away. It's tight enough to work as a Muscadet, although if I were tasting it blind right now I might be tempted to guess Jasnieres or even Saint Peray, as it's got some of the aspects one expects to find in Chenin and/or Roussanne, albeit with an herbal overlay that takes it back to Sauvignon territory. A delightful wine for the mind and for the palate, it's definitely taking the edge off a day filled with two trips to the tire shop, three trips to different wine shops; a day filled with nothing having been checked off the 'to-do' list. But I don't care, because this particular bottle of 1998 Tement Sauvignon is delightful.
-Eden (Sattlerhof, Gross, and Neumayer are my favorite Austrian Sauvignons available here in the US; the Neumayer is from Traisental so I have no idea how it'll age but Ludwig N. is a brilliant winemaker so my money is on him being able to make something worth drinking after a decade+ in the cellar. Sattlerhof and Gross should age more gracefully than I will over time)