By William S. “Sandy” Kaplan

As guests of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, Sommelier Matt Lirette of NOLA Restaurant and Sommelier Chris Robles of Emeril’s Delmonico Restaurant and Bar (both in New Orleans) recently had an opportunity to tour vineyards and taste the wines of Austria.

The trip began with attendance at the Annual Austrian Vie Vinum Wine Fair, where over 600 tables each featured four to eight different wines from vineyards throughout Austria.

It is interesting to note that the Romans most probably introduced the vines to the banks of the Danube 2,000 years ago. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, vines covered over 200,000 acres in Lower Austria alone. Austria has a flourishing tradition of making light wine for prompt local consumption and it has been only recently that they are discovering themselves and their potential as a serious wine country. Though the country produces some red wines, her best wines, like Germany’s and Hungary’s, are white.

The Wachau is Austria’s best-known wine area, much like the Grand Cru areas of France. It lies roughly 40 miles west of Vienna, where the Danube River hits a range of 1600-foot hills. The vineyards are almost vertical, with patches of deep soil in some places and rocky outcrops in others. Composed of small growers with mixed vineyards, virtually everything is done by hand, with little mechanical harvesting. The result is simply very good wine!

“We had the opportunity to travel down the Danube with representatives of some of the vineyards,” said Lirette. “As we’d pass a vineyard located high on the slopes of the hill, we’d taste their wine and a representative of the vineyard would point out various areas on the slope where the grapes were harvested. It was really interesting.”

Chris Robles of Delmonico offered, “Because growing and harvesting is so labor intensive, they don’t make a great deal of wine, but they are very attentive to the grapes, so their wines are very rich and concentrated.”

Another boat excursion took the sommeliers to Neusidler See, a lake area near Rust. The most historically famous wine of the area comes from Rust. Ruster Ausbruch (or Auslese) has been mentioned frequently in the same breath as Tokay. Today some of the best Ausleses and Beerenausleses come from the other side of this lake.

“This is the area where the sweetest wines are produced,” said Chris Robles. “The grapes get ‘Noble Rot’, a fungus which kills the grape but produces extremely high concentrations of sugar.”

Lirette added, “We had an opportunity to visit with Alois Kracher, an innovative and energetic vinter in Austria. He has a method of his own in labeling. In addition to the various labeling laws, he uses numbers by taste based on levels of concentration. He’s a very likeable man who has his hands in almost everything related to wine and winemaking, even outside of Austria. I called him the Emeril of Austria because of his high energy level.”

“We have a very good selection of Austrian wines in our New Orleans restaurants and we were fortunate to be able to sample many of these same wines,” added Robles.

“Like the wines of Germany, the quality of the Austrian wines are based on levels of ripeness and potential alcohol. It seems that the majority of the producers are more vineyard conscious and therefore feel that quality doesn’t come from the grape sugars alone,” explained Lirette.

“Like the Gran Crus of France, these wines have a very good reputation, and we have a fine selection at our restaurants. At NOLA, I like to suggest different wines to complement our local cuisine. We try to educate our customers on the qualities of different wines and at the same time make them comfortable about experimenting with something different.”

Emeril’s restaurants offer wonderful food, superior service and Sommeliers like Chris Nobles and Matt Lirette who travel the world to provide customers with the finest wines available. When you’re in New Orleans, visit Chris at Delmonico and Matt at NOLA and let them tell you the “rest of the story”!

Filed Under: Food Talk