Austrian Wine Trips in 2009

This year there will be 2 wine trips to the regions around Vienna (Wagram, Thermenregion, Carnuntum) and up the Danube (Kamptal, Kremstal and Wachau). The price of the trip (£650.00) will include land transportation from Vienna, all accommodation (double or twin room), all meals, all tours and tastings. Drinks provided by the winemakers are included. Drinks at most meals will be extra. Flights are extra and there will be a single occupancy supplement of £100. Since EasyJet now flies into Vienna from either Gatwick or Luton you can book your flights quite cheaply, especially if you book early (Gatwick is recommended as it is less expensive right now AND has better times). As prior trip participants can tell you, these trips are a gourmet and wine tasting extravaganza! Some of the cultural highlights will include a tour of Stift Klosterneuberg, the historical home of commercial wine making in Austria and a beautiful monastery, and a stay in Dürnstein, the UNESCO World Heritage site where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned when returning from the Crusades.

ROUGH Itinerary –
Day 1 – depart Gatwick on EasyJet, arrive in Vienna at 1425. After picking up the van, we’ll drive to Gumspoldkirchen southwest of Vienna at the base of the Vienna Woods. There may be time for a quick soak in the thermal baths before dinner. Dinner will be at Waldgasthof Schimanszky, a brilliant restaurant in the woods featuring the wines and homemade goods of the force of nature that is Wolfgang Schimanszky. Overnight in Gumspoldkirchen.

Day 2 – Tour and tasting of Spaerot Gebeshuber in Gumpoldskirchen with lunch at their wine bar. After lunch we’ll make a short drive to Göttlesbrunn in Carnuntum to visit Franz & Christine Netzl for a tour and tasting. Dinner at a Heuriger in Gumpoldskirchen. Overnight in Gumspoldkirchen.

Day 3 – Morning tour of Stift Klosterneuberg, lunch at the Stift or in Klosterneuberg. Late afternoon tasting, probably at Schloss Gobelsburg or Bründlmayer in Kamptal. Alternatively, if desired, we may spend the afternoon with some of the monks of the Stift where there is a large English language contingent. Dinner and overnight in Dürnstein.

Day 4 – Morning for exploration of Dürnstein. Late morning tour and tasting at Tegernseerhof (or other producer) in Wachau. Lunch in Dürnstein. Afternoon visit to Stift Gottweig (yet another UNESCO World Heritage site), where they make some wine, too! Dinner at the Richard Löwenherz and overnight in Dürnstein.

Day 5 – Another opportunity to taste some of the wines of the Wachau (producer[s] to be determined). Early lunch on the way back to Vienna. Flight back to the UK in the late afternoon.

A deposit of £100 is required to secure your place. Payment in full is due 4 weeks before departure. Cancellation less than 4 weeks before departure will result in the forfeit of your deposit.
*****

Booking and prepayment for the tours is required. So phone (01628-472214) or email (paula@ultimatewines.co.uk) to book your place. A deposit of £100/person is required to hold a place on the wine tours. Payment in full is required 4 weeks before travel.

7 May 09 Tasting - Swiss Wines - Grape Varieties You've NEVER Heard Of

Venue - London – Bacchus & Comus, 57 Pelham Street, London SW7 2NJ
Time - 6:30 – 8:00 pm
Date - 7 May 2009 (Thursday)
Cost - £40.00/person

Switzerland offers so much more in the vinous area than those incredibly ordinary Fendants and Dôles that you drink on your ski trips. This tasting will feature 12 (!!) unique grape varieties that you've probably have never heard of so it’s a real opportunity to add to your grape variety “life list”. All these wines are rare and seldom made anywhere, even in Switzerland. Most are from the Valais, that beautiful valley along which the Rhône River flows on the way up from Zermatt. The tiny producers here make some outstanding wines. The wines aren’t cheap but, then, what is in Switzerland. So to experience the pleasures of Heida (Païen), Cornalin, Resi, Lafnetscha, Gamaret, and Gwäss, among others, join us on 7 May.

Booking and prepayment for the tasting is required. Phone (01628-472214) or email (paula@ultimatewines.co.uk) to book your place. All of the tastings are sit-down, tutored tastings so arrival on time is important. Please let me know if you will be late (mobile – 07745-895210). See you there.

Dregs Report - going Live on 1 April 2009

Join a worldwide group of wine bloggers for some fun on April Fool's Day, 1 April 2009. I'll be posting my own entry here but when the site goes "live" you'll be able to click on the link to find all the Dregs. Don't miss it.

How do you read blogs? One question survey

The Winery Website Report http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/, which I follow is conducting a short (one question) survey about how you read blogs. Spend the time to answer the question (I'm curious, too!). And if you've got any preferred methods of reading blogs, especially time saving ideas, share them by commenting below.

AbleGrape.com - THE place to research wines

Want to learn more about wines, grapes and anything related to them? If so, http://www.ablegrape.com is the place to be.

As someone who is fascinated with all things vinous and who does a lot of wine research for my tastings and tours, discovering AbleGrape made my life much easier.

If you are a wine lover, wine educator, or just a wine geek (I'm a charter member), you should start using AbleGrape, too.

Wine Tasting for Dummies - a simple system

I struggled through the wine tasting part of the WSET Diploma course. It wasn't that I didn't have a pretty good palate. My friends, and later, my customers always seemed to like the wines I selected and I never enjoyed cheap and nasty bulk wines (which must, in my way of thinking, validate my choices somewhat). My problem was how to describe what I was smelling and tasting. For the Diploma, it mattered. But in real life, it doesn't. So, eventually, I evolved what I call the "Yum or Yuck" system of tasting.

This system can be as simple as just Yum or Yuck. That's good enough. Either you like the wine or you don't. And everyone who can smell and taste can do it.

Of course, you may want to get fancy and make the "Yum or Yuck" system follow the conventional "professional" system of Appearance, Nose, Palate and Conclusions. So here's the expanded version of the "Yum or Yuck" system.

Part I - Appearance - Does it look good? Who cares what colour it is besides red, white or pink? Of course, if it's a particularly pretty colour, that's fine to note. And if it resembles something from your septic tank, that's worth noting, too (that would be a definite "Yuck!").

Part II - Nose (or what does it smell like?) - In the "professional" system it is common to go all "Gilly Goolden" with your descriptions (Gilly Goolden is a well-known UK wine personality who used to be on the Food & Drink programme and was known for her very florid descriptions of the wine she tasted). So if you want to be professional in your wine descriptions, you can describe a wine as smelling of almost anything and everything. If you're very creative, you can describe a long list of scents you find in the glass.

But my scent descriptor is defective. At best I can usually manage generic flowers, fruits (red,white, or berries if I get fancy), savoury (not exactly what, just that it smells like dinner!), vegetal (bushes in general or herbal if fancy), and spices (again, nothing specific more often than not). However, the "Yum or Yuck" system really focuses more on how I feel about what I smell. That is, do I want to jump in the glass and do the backstroke through it's incredibly gorgeous sensual pleasures OR am I looking for the Glade to get the stink out? Of course, there's a wide universe between those two extremes. Do I like the smell a lot, a little, not very much or ... yuck, get me out of here! It's as simple as that.

Part III - Palate (or what does it taste like?) - Here, again, the pros use long and detailed descriptions of all the tastes in the glass. A wide variety of fruits, flowers, spices, minerals, and even more exotic descriptors (pencil lead, cigar box, wet stones, etc.) are regularly used. Well, if you taste them, that's swell and good for you, "use 'em if you've got 'em". Then there are all the "mouthfeel" descriptors used by the pros - is the wine big in the mouth, thin, acidic, fat, unctuous, tannic, structured, elegant, simple, etc, etc, etc. Nice to know and, actually, quite useful but NOT necessary. In my simple system, all you need to decide is does the wine taste good, bad or so-so? Does the wine feel good in your mouth as well as tasting good?

Part IV - Conclusions - Here's where the real pros get determined. The "good" ones try to tell you the country, region, grape varieties, vintage, producer, vineyard, heck, even the day the grapes were picked. Even the best can seldom get the country and variety right very often. But the REAL conclusion you need to reach is do you want more of this wine? Will you rush out to get more NOW, mortgaging the house or trading your children, if necessary? Will you gratefully accept a glass if offered? Will you bravely sip from a glass reluctantly accepted if necessary? OR, will you pour the vile stuff into the nearest loo? In short, is this wine a YUM or a YUCK?

You are now an expert taster. Try it yourself.

Celebrate Valentine's Day with Something Pink!

Valentine’s Day calls for something special to celebrate and I’ve got just the thing for you – a selection of Austrian pinks to please every taste. To make your decision easy, I’ve put together a mixed case that features wines from several different regions, a few sparklers, a few dry wines, and even a sweet wine but they’re all pink!

The Special Valentine’s Day Case includes one bottle of each of the following wines -

Strohmeier 2005 Schilcher Lestoa – a Rosé made from the best vineyard’s finest grapes

Strohmeier 2005 Ganz a Siassa – dessert wine (half bottle) - light coppery pink and not too
sweet, a perfect accompaniment for dessert or just sipping with your sweetie

Brundlmayer NV Brut Rosé - one of my favourite pink sparklers - “absolutely lovely Rosé aromas closest to Lallement in its fervent blackberry and violet nuances; it’s quite racy and Champagne-like with tight bright fruit, a pleasing tartness, good length, and a texture like torn silk” Terry Theise

Steiniger 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé Sekt - delicate bubbles, and a bouquet of bright red berries, raspberries and strawberries, elegant and very delicate

Stift Klosterneuberg 2007 Zweigelt Rosé Stiftwein - a particularly fruity, light wine, with a spicy and fresh aroma, and both juicy fruitiness and stimulating tartness on the palate

Jamek 2007 Jochinger Rosé - Bright rose-colored, fresh fruit aromas and flavours with spicy nuances, delicate, elegant and fruity on the palate, with lots of finesse and charm, lively fruit on the finish.

These beauties can be yours for just £100.00, including VAT and delivery to London and the Home Counties. And I’ll include a personalized note for your own true love, if you’d like.

If you’d prefer to make your own case for your snuggle bunny, just go to the website (http://www.ultimatewines.co.uk), select “Make Your Own Case” under Style and put together the wines of your choice. If you do this and then order by email (paula@ultimatewines.co.uk) or phone (01628-472214) between now and the end of February 2009, I’ll give you a 5% discount on the wines ordered. Delivery and handling will be £10.00 + VAT to London and the Home Counties.

Surprise your Valentine with Ultimate Wines!