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We next got to visit the single vineyard Singerriedl which is one of the best in the region. Vines here are planted in narrow rows that climb up the mountain in terraces held up by mortarless rock wells many of which are 10 feet tall….all painstakingly built and maintained by generations of winemakers the old fashioned way…by hand. To get a sense of just how difficult it is to grow wine here, a typical vineyard in the Wachau valley floor requires 700 hours of labor per hectare to produce a crop. On the hillsides it’s 2000. And the view! Standing 400 meters above the Danube looking up river as it winds its way down from the Alps, with castles and fortresses dotting the peaks of the steep hills skirted with vineyards, each row separated by 10 foot high stone walls. I’m telling you folks, you can’t make this stuff up…you just have to see it.
We were then treated to a cruise down the Danube from the very west end of where the vineyards are planted in the Wachau while sampling wines served by the vintners as we passed each of their properties in turn…sip, see the vineyards, hear the winemaker, feel the passion. It doesn’t get much better than this.

And then it did! Because as we rounded the last bend we approached the historic village of Dürnstein. Way up at the tippy-top of the tallest, steepest mountain stands Dürnstein Castle where Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned by King Leopold VI of Austria while being held for ransom back in the 1200’s. It was while Richard was here that his brother, King John signed the Magna Carta…how cool is that! (He ultimately got ransomed which nearly bankrupted Britain and the money was used to build the city walls around Vienna)

We then sauntered along the Danube to a lovely little Gasthouse and noted wine producer named Jamek in Joching. Once again, a family operation with Dad in the kitchen, mom in a Dirndl supervising the service in a flower encircled garden on a lovely spring day with views up through the vineyards. And the food…well, I guess the only word to use is fresh…because everything is and each of the dishes was paired with a selection of single vineyard wines that told the typicity story from the western reaches of the Wachau to the Wienviertel.

Well, we all asked, how are you going to top this. . Willi and his staff organized a party that was truly Imperial. There were three separate groups touring the country. Ours was for Austrian Newbies, and the others went to Styria and Niederosterreich. But for this night, we all gathered together for on e big blowout party.

We went to the Schönbrunn, the palace of the Habsburg emperors which is one of the grandest in Europe. And way up at the top of the hill is a building called the Gloriette, a fabulous Baroque hall that can be seen from every point on the grounds of the palace and itself overlooking the city of Vienna in the distance. A chamber orchestra played Mozart and Strauss while the guests waltzed before dinner. I’m not a dancer, but I couldn’t resist a chance to experience a taste of what life was like for the Emperor of Austria-Hungary by dancing a waltz with Sandra Auernigg of AWMB. We had another fabulous meal with newfound BFFs and sampling another 30 or so wines that showed off the wonderful ability for Austrian wines to pair with such a variety of foods. We were served hors d’ouerves from the countries of many of the guests including Japan, Thailand, Mexico, China and India and saw in one sitting the versatility and creativity of the wines of Austria.

After dinner the music shifted to a jazz band as the wine flowed, the guests danced and talked, and friendships kindled and strengthened. Then, to top off the evening, Willi Klinger
sat down at the piano and rocked the crowd with his unique stylings in three languages including the Beetles and Edit Piaf. We all agreed, Willi has found his calling at the AWMB.

So as I try to distill down the trip to some of its thematic elements, I realized Austrian wines are Wines that define a lifestyle that has developed over a millennium in one of the most beautiful places on earth. And here’s how they’re doing it:
-Grüner Veltliner
-Family
-A sense of place
-Elegance
-Passion
-Beauty

From there it was on to the lovely town of Eisenstadt where we sampled the regional specialties of Burgenland at the Palace Esterhazy, the country estate of this noble Austro/Hungarian family.

As we drove through the countryside it was fascinating to see very few power lines, the occasional series of windmills, and fields patterned in strips of corn, wheat, and grape vines. Evidently the inheritance laws in Austria, like in Burgundy, are such that land is divided among the children. The result is long, narrow patches owned by different folks. One particular grower had a plot of land that was one row wide by one kilometer long. The vines themselves are planted right up to the road side and behind and adjacent to the houses. I saw many houses where you could reach your arm out the garage window and pick grapes if you were of a mind.

Then it was on to the Leithaberg area which just received a DAC designation. This is the culmination of a program driven by the AWMB to define a set of standards, production processes and quality level similar to AOC in France. There are currently six, and the AWMB’s goal is 16…and I do believe they’ll get there soon.

After that we did a tasting of sweet wines at the Nationalparkzentrum Neusiedlersee in Ilmitz which is dedicated to the natural history and ornithology of this special place which is unique in Europe. This type of area is known as a Steppe Lake and is the home for some 300 species of birds.

Dinner that night was in Neuseidel am See where I was taught how to say cheers in Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Malay at the fabulous Nyikospark Restaurant.

Thursday began with a lecture and guided tasting by Suzanne Staggl of AWMB on the wines of Niederosterreich (Lower Austria). The tasting was in a spectacular setting…the banquet hall of the Schloss Hof which is the summer palace build by Prinz Eugen who also built the spectacular Belvedere Palace in Vienna. There we sampled the wines of this region and I had the opportunity to meet Heidemarie Fischer of Pfaffl who is just beginning to import her family’s wines to America through Palm Bay. We also were treated to a short course in how to make Wiener Schnitzel by Suzanne Staggl and Barbara Arbeithuber (who was the guiding hand making the trip such a success) and got to dine on our own creations. This was followed by a tour of the palace and stroll around the fabulous seven levels of gardens which have recently been restored to their 18th century glory

On to the Kremstal, and the city of Krems, in the center of the lower Austria (Niederösterreich region which is Austria’s version of Napa Valley…well, except for the fact that the Wachau part of the region is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Krems has a beautifully preserved old town (Altstadt) with historic churches dating back to the 1200’s and delightfully decorated homes and a village lifestyle that apparently hasn’t changed for centuries. Winding staircases, buildings at crazy angles, all accented by window boxes full of geraniums, cafes serving mélange (Austrian Cappuccino) and strudel, and some of the most pleasant people I’ve met in Europe.

We were then taken up to one of the literal and figurative highlights of the trip…a visit to Stift Göttweig, an 11th century monastery that has the most spectacular view of the entire Danube valley and prime wine regions. From there you can see the whole valley and get a sense of what makes the wines from there so special that maps can only hint at. From the Pannonian Plain and Vienna to the east and south the Danube winds its way up the foothills of the Alps. Each of the wine regions in turn get more mountainous as you go west from Kamptal to Kremstal to Wachau with the vines being planted right up the slopes.

At the monastery we had the opportunity to sample another 20 wines served by the winemakers themselves and get a first hand sense of the passion they put into their product. We tasted Grüners and Rieslings from Kremstal, Kamptal, and Traisental DAC’s and tasted the fruits of the AWMB’s collaborative push with the producers to create regional standards that will define quality for this area long into the future. Of particular note to me was meeting Huber, which is one of the better distributed wines in the U.S. The tasting was held in a fabulous hall with cathedral ceilings painted with frescos from the 1700’s and a view of the Danube Valley that was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

We moved on from there to the town of Mautern in the Wachau for a dinner that my words here simply can’t describe. The proprietor/chef Lisl Wagner-Bacher runs a Michelin Two Star and Gault Millau Three Toque temple to gastronomy, and our group took over the entire restaurant for the night. Every dish left us speechless as they came in course after course of creative reinterpretations of Viennese classics from Tafelspitz Raviolini, Perch dumplings and a raspberry tart fresh from the oven that was to die for. All of course were paired with wines carefully selected by the AWMB and the Bacher’s 5 person sommelier staff to enhance the culinary creations. Turns out Willi used to be Managing Director of Domäne Wachau and had squirreled away 500 bottles of the 99 Loibenberg Riesling. There are now only 489 left! The evening finished with a special treat of fresh local cherry juice topped with an almond meringue…Yowza!

Our trip began with a visit to a classic Heuriger, or local winery/restaurant where they serve the wine the make. So we got to visit with the winemaker and his family who also served as chef, waiter and host for the entourage. The warm welcoming atmosphere of the Heuriger typifies what the Austrian’s call Gemütlichkeit, loosely translated (by me) as meaning: we may not know you, but we’re happy you’re here, you’re welcome and you’re our new best friend…come, let’s eat and drink and talk together!

We sampled a range of classic Austrian dishes from Wiener Schnitzel to Tafelspitz and a bunch of other fabulous foods with names I can’t pronounce or spell. But it doesn’t matter…just point, eat and enjoy. Heuriger have institutionalized the concept of terroir and hospitality…you can only experience it by being there.

The beautiful sunny day started out propitiously but devolved into ominous rumblings turning to crashing thunder and then a steady rain. It didn’t dampen the groups’ spirits as we boarded the boat to take us across the Neuseidlersee, a reed-encircled shallow lake that is the center of the sweet wine region of Austria. The marshy environment is a haven for an incredible diversity of birdlife…and the humid conditions are perfect for the formation of Botrytis cinerea or noble rot. Notably around Rust on the western side of the lake, and Ilmitz on the east, it is the special fungus that is the necessary ingredient to making the classic sweet wines. Not being confined to the restrictive rules of an archaic regulatory system, the Austrians have been able to experiment and apply new ideas to the concept of classic sweet wines. I had had the pleasure of meeting Gerhard Kracher when he visited NY this past winter, and tasting his wines in their village of origin was a special treat.

Rust is a beautiful old city known for the storks nesting on practically every chimney. We visited the Wine Academy of Austria there, housed in a 400 year old tower and gatehouse and stable that defended the city in earlier times and has been refitted as center of wine teaching. Willi Klinger, the Managing Director of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board gave us a very comprehensive and entertaining overview of Austrian wines and the history of production and the innovation that has taken place over the last 30 years.

Then we heard from Christian Zechmeister, one of the more knowledgeable and passionate academy staffers who gave us an in-depth profile of the diversity of wines from Styria (aka Steiermark, the southern province of Austria), and of Burgenland.

All told we tasted 67 different wines today, and we worked our way through indigenous varietals including Grüner Veltliner, Blaufrankisch, Zweigelt, Saint Laurent, and Austria’s own names for Chardonnay (Morillon), Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) and Pinot Noir (Blauburgunder). What came out very clearly to me was a “national style”. Most of the wines including the reds are vinified in stainless steel and never see any oak. The result is very fresh wines balanced with distinctive racy acidity. So I could sense a common character across all the varietals and regions… wines of elegance that express a “sense of place” that are the perfect complement to a wide variety of foods, but particularly the new fusion cuisine. There’s a peppery note that defines Grüner, but I felt it was common in many of the other varietals as well. And I think that’s one element that makes Austrian wines so food-friendly.

And since almost all the wineries are family owned, not part of large companies, the innovation, creativity and passion of the producers comes through loud and clear. Two Grüners from neighboring winemakers share the common characteristics of the grape, but take advantage of the unique microclimate and soils to express a typicity of that place.

I visited Austria as part of a group of approx. 100 writers, sommeliers and restaurateurs from some 35 countries who were brought together by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board for a total immersion in the state of the wine industry here. (That’s me, Willi Klinger the MD of the AWMB and Laurie Tadayon, BAT’s social media marketing manager for wine at the Schlosshof.) We all shared an interest in the business of wine and an ability to speak English. Beyond that the diversity of accents and footwear underscored the internationalization of the wine industry.

Relatively unknown in America as a wine producing country, Austria is being recognized by the wine cognoscenti as on being on the cusp of being discovered… A new generation of winemakers is creating wines for a new generation of consumers. Both the wineries and consumers are all looking for the same thing…food friendly wines that express the uniqueness of the place they are made…what the French call “terroir”

And these guys know what they’re doing. Austria has developed a wine industry where it seems everyone has a practical if not academic Masters in Geology with a minor in knowledge of soils, rocks, terrain and weather patterns and their combined impact on making wine.

And because they’re reinventing the industry, they’re doing it with an eye for the future. Fully 16% of Austria’s wine is certified organic and most of the rest (excluding bulk wine) is made with an eye toward limited and minimal intervention. In fact, a growers’ group called Vinea Wachau has set standards for its members wines called the Codex Wachau. It strictly (and I mean that in the full Austrian interpretation of “STRICT”) ensures all the wines which carry the Wachau label and the designations of Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd come from very defined geographies and soil and absolutely no manipulation with technology such as microoxygenation, fractionation, chaptalization, concentration or aromatization or the like.

But no story about Austrian wine can be told without beginning and ending with the indigenous varietal that defines the country, Grüner Veltliner. Grüner means Green, and it is one of the most versatile varietals of Vitis vinifera. It represents the largest percentage of production in the country…some 33% of vines. But its personality is very much determined by factors such as the soil it’s grown on, the altitude, and how long it’s left to ripen. Most producers now vinify in stainless and the wine rarely sees oak and it’s these two things that result in the one common element that defines Grüner…the balance of fresh fruit, alcohol and acidity. That’s what makes the wine so food-friendly and prompted one sommelier to ask his customers… “What kind of wine would you like, Red, White or Green?”

We had the pleasure of attending our third “Meet the Winemakers of Greece” event in NY on May 19 put on by our friends Sophia Perpera and George Athanas of All About Greek Wine and sampling the new offerings. One theme came out very strongly…they are experimenting with blends of the traditional indigenous grapes with more familiar international varietals. Some of the most interesting were:

—Mextoxi X 2008 from Tsantali, a blend of Assyrtiko, Athiri and Sauvignon Blanc…super rich and a nice balance of acid to complement food. (That’s me and Perikles Drakos, the export manager for Tsantali) There’s a great story here…the vines are grown on the slopes of Mt. Athos on a remote peninsula in the North Aegean populated only by Greek Orthodox monks…and for the past 600 years only males have been allowed to enter…including only male donkeys as farm labor.

–I was also impressed by George Skouras‘ Megas Oenos Red 2006 The name means “big wine” and very appropriately so…a virtual explosion in the mouth, with a wonderful blend of fruit, structure and a finish that goes on forever. It’s a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Aghiorghitiko, one of the seemingly unpronounceble autochthons that the Greeks have co-named “St. George”…much easer to say.

–Yiannis Paraskevopoulos hosted the Gai’a table. He’s one of if not the most influential of the new crop of winemakers in Greece with a Phd from Bordeaux and a teaching post at the school of oenology at the Univ. of Athens. Everything he makes is fabulous, and he pulled out an experiment/hidden gem for us to taste…an Assyrtiko made with wild yeasts. The star of his showing was the Gaia Estate 2006 Nemea St. George…big, powerful, and perfectly balanced and structured. I’d put it up against any of the cult California Cabs.

–I said there was a theme, and Pavlidis Estate which is in Drama (northeastern Macedonia) from Athenee Importers. They have a line of “Thema” wine simply named White, Rose and Red. Each is a blend of indigenous and familiar varietals. The rose was most interesting in that it is made from 100% tempranillo which is vinified as both a white and red wine and then blended to make a rose. I generally don’t like rose’s (in spite of all the recent hype they’ve gotten) but this was spectacular.

For a second straight week, the Wall Street Journal highlighted a couple of our clients. In the Weekend Edition’s “Tastings” section story titled “Singing the ABC’s of Wine”…

G was for “Grüner Veltliner. Austria’s signature white, far more widely available now than just a short time ago. It’s so trendy that some people, unfortunately, call it GrünVelt, GrünV, GV or even GrüV, but we’d stick with GROO-ner felt-LEE-ner.”

X was for “Xinomavro. Indigenous red grape of Greece, pronounced Ksee-NO-ma-vro, according to the Web site allaboutgreekwine.com, where you can hear it pronounced. Greek wines are interesting, well-made and often bargain priced.”

Z was for “Zweigelt. Austria’s most widely planted red grape, sometimes seen as a rosé. The red is fun, charming and a little peppery.”

Authors Dorothy Gaiter and Richard Brecher also noted the influence of Blogs highlighting Dr. Vino (Tyler Colman) and Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV.

Eric Felten covered Absinthe in the May 9/10 weekend edition with a front page photo and jump to a great rating and review of Mata Hari. To give some perspective for those of you overseas, this kind of coverage is a major PR coup in the US. Eric is a very influential writer and blogger, and of course the WSJ is an extraordinarily influential publication.

In addition to the coverage and attention for the category, it was significant that the story captured the positioning and message we’d been working on for the brand. While the title indicates the author wasn’t enthralled with the flavor of absinthe in general, he did pick up on our point of difference…a lower licorice profile which makes it more mixable. And the fact that he included a photo of the bottle was an added bonus.

I’m at the airport ruminating on this year’s WSWA. It was mentioned that there were about 200 fewer attendees than in years past and that companies like Southern Wine and Spirits only brought one or two folks from each state. Add to that the recent wide scale layoffs at the big suppliers, and I expected more doom and gloom in the air. But in spite of that it was still a busy and lively affair and the general mood was upbeat. New brands, new growth, new relationships, new opportunities.

The traffic at the exhibition booths was pretty good. I saw a bunch of repeat brands, but not nearly as many new tequilas or vodkas as we’ve seen in years past. They had the wine section separated from the spirits and it was poorly signed and at the end of the hall, so traffic was very light. Were I an exhibitor I’d be asking for a refund.

Most of the business at WSWA gets conducted in the suites and in the hallways among folks who are already doing business together, so we often see a lot of newbie suppliers coming to the show thinking it’s like VinExpo or the London show. It’s not.

I asked most of the exhibitors why they were there, and uniformly the response was to find an importer and distributor. There is very little awareness that WSWA attendees are not at the show for the purpose of finding new brands. The good news is that each of them is a prospective attendee for the USDC…we put it on to help people just like them figure out the right way to crack the US Drinks market.

US Drinks Conference
We had a mini USDC session attended by about 20 folks with a few participants who had attended in the past. Our goal was to get feedback on our agenda and format for this year, and it was very successful. The conference will be held in NY on Oct. 13/14 this year and details are at www.usdrinksconference.com. I was pleased to get a commitment from Rob Cooper of St. Germain to participate in the spirits panel. And I got some positive feedback from Gary Vaynerchuk of www.WineLibraryTV.com fame that he might speak as well…I saw him at the Boston Wine Expo and he is a tsunami of fresh air in an industry that needs some shaking up.

We’re also doing well in sponsorships for this year’s event with almost all of last year’s sponsors reupping including Just-Drinks, Beverage Media, Nixon Peabody, and Western Carriers. Also coming on board as sponsors this year are JF Hillebrand and Drinks International Magazine.

Ecommerce
We’ve been working to develop ecommerce solutions for many of our clients and have been spending a lot of time analyzing the current options including Amazon.com. Tom Wark of SWRA and Fermentation recommended I talk to the folks at the Inertia Beverages (www.intertiabev.com) and I spent some time at their suite and think they have a great concept. I still have to do some digging to understand it better but it sounds like an interesting option for both direct to consumer sales and direct to trade (e.g. supplier to restaurant) .

Social Media Marketing

I spoke to a lot of folks about the work we’re doing in Social Media Marketing and while our industry might be a few years behind the times, it is catching on. Lots of interest in the subject coupled with an acknowledged lack of understanding of what it is, how to use it and what it can do. We now have two people working full time on SMM plus me, and are looking to hire and train a third as our business expands. I was telling folks about the US Wine Bloggers Conference and the European Wine Bloggers conference, and I think they’ll both become significant events. I’m bummed I can’t go to the former because I’ll be in Greece on vaca, but Laurie Tadayon, our new wine SMM manager will be representing us.

For those of you interested in some examples of social media marketing tools, you should pull up a stool at the bar and check out the Thursday Drink Night event at http://www.mixoloseum.com/barstool.html on Thursday, April 30 at 7PM

I also saw Ann Tuennerman who runs Tales of the Cocktail (who was seriously engaged in the tasting competition) and I’m looking forward to attending that in July where I’m on the blog panel discussion with Paul Clarke (www.cocktailchronicles.com) and Jeffrey Morgenthaler of the eponymous blog. Cyril Necker who produces Girl liqueur was also there…I think that product is a grand slam home run just waiting for the right entity to recognize it.

And to add a bit of “aren’t I cool” to this post, Bill Earle lf NABI invited me to join him on a U.S. government sponsored trade trip to Georgia (the country, not the state). The timing is lousy though…I’m going to be in Austria on a Wine Summit tour for the Austrian Wine Marketing Board the next week and can’t really justify being out of the country for that long.

I had just finished Alice Feiring’s book, “The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization” and was looking forward to meeting her on Wednesday at the Darcy and Huber tasting. D & H are a new import company bringing in wines from the Vienna region of Austria. So boy was I surprised to find out that Alice was speaking right in my little home town of Simsbury CT this very weekend. I usually have to schlepp down to NY for most wine events, and having Alice in Simsbury was a bonus on a bonus.
For those of you not familiar with her, Alice is a proponent of “Natural Wines” meaning wines made with little or no technical intervention using tools such as Microoxygenation, designer yeasts and the like. She’s also gained some notoriety for her interest in biodynamic winemaking, though her focus is on the broader philosophy of natural wines. She is also the author of Veritas in Vino blog and a well respected freelance wine writer.
Alice gave some readings from her books and the audience got to taste their way through some samples of American, French, Chilean and Argentinian examples of the genre.

There’s a fascinating thread going on at www.drvino.com regarding some apparently heavy handed editing at The Wine Advocate Bulletin Board edited by Mark Squires.
Schadenfreude acknowledged, but there’s a legitimate debate here about journalism in blogs and forums/bulletin boards…do the same rules apply? And I’m talking not just about the core question of journalistic integrity and ethics, but the clear differentiation between fact and opinion. I posted a comment in the thread posing the question and I’m thinking about asking it again at the Tales of the Cocktail seminar I’m participating in…it’ll be interesting to get feedback from real people as well as the blognoscenti.

I’m conflicted, how about you?