Wine: Best Producers: Austrian Dessert Wines

Date:   September 28, 2010

About Wines from Austria

Best wine supplier in Philippines discusses wine related topics

Austria makes the finest sweet wines in the world. American consumers are still largely unfamiliar with them, but these wines will soon become as coveted here as they are already in parts of Europe. For connoisseurs of the exotic and rare botrytis-affected wines of the world, Austria’s Neusiedlersee, or Lake Neusiedl, will soon become a household word.

The lake itself is the key to the wine’s production. It is shallow and warm, with an area of nearly 60 square miles, and is situated in the warmest part of Austria–on the Hungarian border. The land surrounding the lake is flat, marshy, and humid; in no other area of the world–with the possible exception of Hungary’s Tokay–does the noble rot, Botrytis Cinerea, attack grapes so reliably, year in and year out. While botrytis visits the great sweet wine areas of France and Germany (such as Sauternes) only once in every few vintages, it is rare for the Neusiedlersee to have a year without it.

Great sweet wines have been made here for several hundred years, but the problems of phylloxera, two world wars, and a Russian occupation of the region until 1956 were followed by the wine scandal of the 80s; unfortunately, the 20th century has not been kind to the growers of Neusiedlersee. Once the Russians left in 1956, however, the way was cleared for a heavy reinvestment in the vineyards, and the general renaissance of Austrian wine and winemaking as a whole has only served to raise the quality of the area’s wines that much further. From a quality perspective, Neusiedlersee has retaken its rightful place in the world of viticulture.

Due to the certainty of the conditions, production of Beerenausleses, Trockenbeerenausleses, and Eisweins is relatively regular, and supplies (compared to Germany, for instance) are abundant. This means that the wines, though still somewhat expensive, are often offered at a fraction of the price of their French and German counterparts. Additionally, the Neusiedlersee produces Ausbruch, an indigenous type of sweet wine that is one of the world’s most exotic, .

In the traditional production of Ausbruch, the winemaker adds fresh non-botrytis-affected grapes, or fresh must, to the fermenting wine. This helps to keep the fermentation going when there is inherently so much sugar and so little liquid in the must. The result is a wine with a higher (and better balanced) alcohol level, and a more vinous character than corresponding German wines. Furthermore, Ausbruchs are often aged in casks until they develop a touch of rancio, an oxidized, sherry-like character. The resultant wine can be mind-bogglingly complex, with tobacco, herb, and yeast nuances overlaid with the more typical ripe fruit flavors associated with botrytis. Additionally, acidity is nowhere near the piercing levels of many German wines of similar sweetness (usually eisweins), often making them far more pleasant in youth. All this makes for what was this year–as was last, and probably will be for many years to come–some of the finest dessert wines made in the entire world.

SOURCE:      http://www.tastings.com/wine/best_producers/austria_dessert.html

Clark Wine Center was built in 2003 by Hong Kong-based Yats International Leisure Philippines to become the largest wine shop in Philippines supplying Asia’s wine lovers with fine vintage wines at attractive prices.  Today, this wine shop in Clark Philippines offers over 2000 selections of fine wines from all major wine regions in the world.  As a leading wine supplier in Philippines, Pampanga’s Clark Wine Center offers an incomparable breadth of vintages, wines from back vintages spanning over 50 years.  Clark Wine Center is located in Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone adjacent to Angeles City, just 25 minutes from Subic and 45 minutes from Manila.

Wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Loire, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Alsace, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, Chile and Argentina etc. are well represented in this Clark Wine Shop.

For more information, email Wine@Yats-International.com or visit http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Getting to this wine shop in Pampanga Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Philippines from Manila

Getting to the Clark Wine Center wine shop from Manila is quite simple:  after entering Clark Freeport from Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along the main highway M A Roxas. Clark Wine Center is the stand-along white building on the right, at the corner A Bonifacio Ave.  From the Clark International Airport DMIA, ask the taxi to drive towards the entrance of Clark going to Angeles City.  From Mimosa, just proceed towards the exit of Clark and this wine shop is on the opposite side of the main road M A Roxas.