Putting Austrian Wines Back on the Map
Putting Austrian Wines Back on the Map
Feb 23, 2012 6
(WSJ) - It might surprise you to learn that in a small corner of Austria they have only just finished picking the 2011 harvest. I'm not sure if this is some sort of record—certainly there can't be many regions in Europe waiting to bring in the grapes—but on the banks of Lake Neusiedl, they have just picked the last of their Gewürztraminer, Muscat and Riesling.
"I don't know of anybody in the world who has grapes left on the vine," says Austrian winemaker Willi Opitz, "but I expect we are the last."
Temperatures didn't fall low enough to make Eiswein on Mr. Opitz's 17-hectare estate close to Illmitz, a small market town near the Hungarian border. So instead of picking the shriveled botrytised crop of grapes in ice-cold conditions, he waited to make Trockenbeerenauslese, a style of wine known for its rich, golden color and seductive sweetness.
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