Domaine Select Wine Estates Harvest Trip

October 28- November 3, 2009

Andrew McNamara  and Laura Maniec 

  

Andrew: It wasn’t until I stepped off the plane in Washington, D.C. and rode the moon-bus to the International Terminal that it hit me that I was going to Austria for the first time – and going to work in the cellars and vineyards of some of the great producers in the Wachau and Wagram.  I knew two of the five people on the trip, including my good friend Laura Maniec, MS – but I had no idea of the other two…  my stomach (from laughing) and my liver (from drinking) would not have hurt nearly as much if I hadn’t met Daniel Hubbard – Domaine Select’s Mid-European Import Manager (translation – he speaks better German than I do English, and knows more about Austria and the wines than anyone I’ve ever met…) and Rob Frazee, Pharmaceutical soon-to-be Wine Salesman (hopefully…).

After enjoying a Mélange at a smoky-airport coffee shop, Laura arrived and we headed off to meet with Franz Leth in Wagram.  The “short” walk to the car in the 45 degree rain was, well, “fun’ - especially for us Floridians who have blood as thin as grain alcohol.  An quick jaunt across the Danube (no, it’s not Blue for those wondering… or at least it wasn’t while we were there) and an hour later and we were in the town of Nus at the lovely Hotel Katarina (the rooms are all named after grapes –Zweigelt, Morillon, Blaufrankish, Grüner Veltliner –  mine was “Chardonnay”… they must have known we were from the US.)  After a quick stop we headed over to see Franz, and his son Hanz, who were both there to “pump us up” with some Noodle Soup and out-of-this-world Weiner schnitzel (learned that sunflower oil is the key to a great Schnitzel).  After a vineyard tour, and another vineyard tour, followed by yet another vineyard tour (all in an effort to push off our cellar work)– having felt the crumbling Loess soil even after we were told to “not get out of the car" - the decaying stems of machine harvesting and ancient press houses, we made it back to the cellar where we were put to “work”.  We were pumping a large stainless steel tank full of Gelber Muskateller into a lovely old wooden Foudre.  Roughly half-way through, a bucket of betanite was added (roughly 4.5kg for 3000L of wine) to fine the wine.  Before we were done, a loud shriek came from the other room (we could not see the Foudre from the tank room) and Hanz told us that the tank held more wine than the foudre and well, let’s just say, it was a big-ole hot tranny mess that was not apologizing.

Photo: Betanite preparation

 

Laura: Fueled with a hunk of Zucchini bread dipped in chocolate and given how well we worked at the wine transfer process, Franz decided to put us to work topping up barrels, while listening to U2, we all got a row of barrels. Being the competitive Sommeliers that we are, we all raced down the rows trying to see who could do it the quickest. After numerous jokes about bungholes, we finished with yours truly in first place. On to taste Franz's Zweigelts (indigenous grape that tastes a lot like Syrah from France) from the who’s who of tonneliers to learn about the different oak and coopers that Franz works with and how these components will eventually be used in his "tête du cuvée" wine Gigama (means gigantic aromatics). Amongst the different barrels we had Taransaud oak, Vicard, Sylvain and Nadalie and when we tasted the final blend we listened to Bruce Springstein "Born in the u.s.a., I'm a long gone daddy in the u.s.a. 
Born in the u.s.a., born in the u.s.a. 
Born in the u.s.a., I'm a cool rocking daddy in the u.s.a. Born in the u.s.a..." I guess that's what motivates an amazing man like Franz to make kick ass wine. My notes on the final blend say roasted meats, smoky, peppery, juicy blue fruits, taste the loss, ashy, chalky, beautifully complex.

Picture:  Franz Leth & the Loess of Wagram

Andrew: A quick break and back to the hotel Morwald for dinner.  While enjoying some Sekt from Leth we discovered that our sommelier for the evening – Andreas Jechsmayr – had just passed his Certified Sommelier Exam in Austria a few weeks before – Congratulations to him!  His hospitality was incredibly gracious…  some might say Über-gracious.  After an amazing dinner that featured a flight of 2005 Dessert wines – Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese we decided that the only way to beat jet-lag was to stay up even later.  Let me preface this by saying that we had a bit to drink at dinner, and virtually no sleep on the plane over, coupled with all of our hard “work” during the afternoon meant that alcohol was the cure for all of our ails.  After a round or two of beer, we discovered the rare and ancient cellar of this fabulous restaurant (Avocado Ravioli with Crayfish was unbelievable)…  and in it we discovered the 1996 Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc and the 1997 Robert Mondavi Coastal Chardonnay…  of course we had to order the Fumé Blanc…

Picture: Wagramterrassen

Picture: Hans's "Little Workers"

Photo: Hans's pigs - before and after

Photo:  Red Cabbage, The Goose and the Goose Juice

Photo: Brandl-Zöbing - Gelber Muskateller leaf

Laura: On to see Heiligenstein or  “Hell Rock” in the Kamptal where we would meet the humble and talented Gunther Brandl. This 9ha estate makes incredible wines, which are still relatively new, and under appreciated in the US. We drank, we saw, we conquered but not before scraping together all the Euro in our pockets to buy every flavor of the Brandl house made vinegars.

Andrew: Off to the Wachau.… wow.  One of the great experiences of my life was the day and a half we spent with Karl and Karl Jr.  After arriving in the town of Spitz am Donau (German for Danube) at the far western edge of the Wachau, we went down to the family Heurigen and at some fantastic dried meats and had our first taste of Sturm (still fermenting grape juice traditionally drunk during and right after harvest –it was here that Laura introduced the harvest crew to the wonderful world of Eddie Izzard’s Lego animated “Death Star Canteen”… wow.  Let’s just say a theme emerged.  This was yet another late night as we tried a number of young and older wines from the great Lagler Estate.

Picture: Sturm

 

Laura and Andrew: The next morning was what we had all come for – we were going to get to harvest the Tausendeimerberg . After a relatively early wake-up call, we headed outside and drove over to this vineyard - a very steep, terraced hillside along the Danube and overlooking Spitz. Our mission: to find and harvest all of the nicely ripe Smaragd Riesling grapes.  Rubber gloves – check.  Pruning shears – check.  Warm, sunny weather – uh, we’re going to have to get back to you on that one.  Yeah.  No sun-at all.  And certainly no warm weather.  We’re talking 35-40 degrees on a day with very low clouds.  Again, for those of us from Florida - Yikes!  After a brief lesson as to what to pick (the clean, beautifully green berries) and what to discard (Gray Rot), and what to discard part of and keep part of (Botrytis), we were set loose on the lower slope.  We all had humungous grins – and rightly so.  This was our first times doing this, and wow – was it fun!  It reminded us of being little kids at Easter, hunting for eggs. One of the best parts was carrying the Utz up the terraces to the top of a very steep hill and then dumping the grapes over our shoulders. It was so much fun that none of us complained about the cold until about 3:45 that afternoon.  Of course we had a few breaks - Leberkäse Sandwiches (Livercheese) around 10:30; Sturm around 11:30; lunch (a warm pot of beautiful sausages), with more Sturm at 1; Coffee at 3 and then we were done at 4:30ish. We were warriors and climbed to the top of the Burgberg (the Reiden that the Tausendeimerberg is in) and saw the river and the Wachau from an entirely different view.  Burgberg really is one of the very last vineyards in the Wachau – right next door is a National Park, just as the river bends south.

Picture: Harvesting the Tausendeimerberg

We laughed, we did shake face, we were hot sticky botrytis messes but no, we didn’t drink, yet – we got to see all of our hard work pay off.  As you must declare what level of ripeness you are going to harvest before you actually pick, we got to see Karl Lagler Jr. nervous.  Not something I thought I would ever see (!) but all went well.

 

And we got to see the entire winemaking process from our grapes (even the yeast cells eating the sugar from our grapes!).  We have since been told it was a good vintage, except of course for our grapes, and that the wine is really special.  After another meal at the Heurigen, we were all ready to go to sleep. 

Laura: For our last visit we drove down to Sudoststyria (Southeast Styria) to the town of Graz and after a great climb up a steep mountain to see the city, and then to to visit the young, talented and beautiful, Katarina at Lackner-Tinnacher.  She had just returned from a trip to Bordeaux and was eager to show us around the winery, have us taste the wine and tell us about their philosophy of winemaking, over fire-roasted chestnuts served in newspaper with TBA. (It was one of the best pairings of the year for me)

Andrew: It was a fantastic tasting with beautiful Sauvignon Blanc, Gelber Muskateller and quite a few other varietals.  We tasted some of the house-made eau-de-vie (my personal favorite was Quince, though there were several different types of apples as well) and went on our way.

After returning to Graz, we couldn’t let the last night go without a drink.  Just as we were walking out of our hotel, it started snowing (!)  For most people that’s not anything unique, but after spending my last 5 ½ years in Florida, I don’t see snow all that often.  After several toasts, we went for a walk in the snow and found some entirely delectable “street meat” – basically an Austrian hot dog cart.  It will always be a memory for me.

To wrap it up, this was simply the best trip I’ve ever been on.  I learned such an incredible amount in a very short period of time, and have a great respect for the Austrian wine industry.  The people are amazing, the food fantastic and the wines aren’t half bad. :) Working in the cellars and in the vineyards was a phenomenal experience.  I headed to Italy to meet up with a few people after this, and I’ll post that in another blog.

L&A: Thank you to Domaine Select Wine Estates for this opportunity, and to Daniel Hubbard for sharing his incredible knowledge.