Austria has more to offer than sweet wines

Date:   September 28, 2010

About Wines from Austria

Best wine supplier in Philippines discusses wine related topics

Like most of Europe, there were grapes growing in Austria all along, but it was the Romans who introduced viticulture to the Alpine Slopes along the Danube Valley. A few centuries later, Charlemagne added a few regulations, selecting what he thought were the best wines for the area and banning others, called respectively, “Frankish” and “Hunnish.” In the 18th century, Emperor Joseph II declared the right of Heuriger inns to serve wine and since 1784, Vienna vintners have sold wines straight from the vats in their own inns.

More recently, Austria’s steady progress toward greater wines was interrupted when the drive for unbridled mass production led to many less-than-scrupulous vintners to produce Spätlese containing glycol (yes, as in antifreeze). The resulting shock led to the strictest wine laws in Europe. A good thing, though one wonders why it was necessary to enact a law to make it clear that wine should not contain antifreeze.

Today, more than 137,000 acres are planted with grapes in Austria, in four designated regions and 15 subregions along and below the eastern slopes of the Alps. The largest of these is Niederösterreich, or Lower Austria, which is called this despite the fact that it is the northern-most wine region of Austria. Best known to American palates is the subregion called Weinviertel, which simply means “wine quarter,” and since 2002 has been recognized for DAC Grüner Veltliner. Since a historic tasting that year, when the top two spots went to Grüner (and the top four to Austria over France and California), this distinctive white, peppery yet fruity with a balanced acidity, quickly has shattered the myth of exclusively sweet wines from Austria.

Grüner Veltliner’s origins still are not entirely clear. It is not related botanically to Roter-, Brauner- and Frühroter Veltliner, among other namesakes. With DNA analysis, Traminer has been identified as one of the parent varieties; the other remains unknown. To further the confusion, before the mid 19th century, it was called Grüner Muskateller — although there is no relation to the Muskateller variety.

SOURCE:      http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20100915/FEATURES03/9150302/Austria-has-more-to-offer-than-sweet-wines

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.