Are morels on toast the best way to serve morels? Seems that we're on to something with this adapted recipe from the Chez Panisse Vegetable cookbook. Grilled panunto (the foundation of Tuscan cooking) with morels sautéed in olive oil and spring onions, topped with pea shoots and lemon juice might be my absolute favorite morel mushroom preparation. Tangy and earthy with real morel flavor set off by a near perfect wine pairing: 2008 Bruno Giacosa Barbera d'Alba.

Morels were sourced from Bi-Rite Grocery as was the enormous Becker Lane Organic Farm pork chop seared in our trusty cast iron skillet (if you have a weber and kingsford and some hickory chips go with that instead).

We consumed the 2008 Rosi Schuster Sankt Laurent with the chop along with roasted eggplant. A gorgeous pairing and a beautifully perfumed bottle of wine. St. Laurent (sometimes written Saint Laurent, or in this case in German Sankt Laurent) is from the Pinot family of grapes and indeed is very Pinot Noir-like in its flavor profile: highly aromatic, light in body, dry on the palate and very silky tannins.

Hey there! We’ve redirected our blog to blog.peripheriquewine.com. We've been down for a couple of days but everything’s up and running just fine and we’re ready to bring you more great wine and food awesomeness from our luxurious home office here in the Tendernob! Oh, and just one more PSA before one last set of photos and some finals thought on Vievinum 2010. Beth has been hard at work on the périphériquewine site and it’s looking really swell so please check out the latest design with many more improvements to follow!

Thanks for hanging in there while I’ve worked through all my pics, vids, and notes, from my trip to Austria in May. This was a really incredible trip and I’d like to give a great big thanks to Erin and Seth @Emerald Wines and the Austrian Wine Marketing Board for making it happen! Both groups are amazing, dedicated, and passionate about spreading the word of the exceptional wines coming from Austria. I’m more energized now than ever to sell and promotes these wines here in the U.S.

Off to taste some really great SuperToscano with Cinzia and Le Macchiole and my friends from @DomaineSelect  at Quince Restaurant! Can’t wait to post on this tomorrow!

 

Winegrowing in Vienna is significant with 700 hectares planted within its city limits. That was just a nugget of sommelier trivia until I visited the Nussberg vineyard at the northern edge of the city with the team from Winebow in May. The Nussberg and Bisamberg vineyards are the two best vineyard sites in the city and both have multiple growers. Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, and Chardonnay are all grown here. But for me, the most interesting and compelling of these wines is the traditional field blend known as Gemischter Satz, where the above mentioned varietals are picked and co-fermented together. No grower is more famous than Fritz Wieninger who promotes all Viennese wines with the same enthusiasm as he does his own wines and his family's heurige.

Fritz's heurige is a really good time. The food and atomospere are great and his wines are first class.

jessebeckerMS

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My good friend Ryan Arnold formerly of VinDivino and now with Emerald Wines introduced me to Paul Achs in Chicago about a year ago and I immediately added Paul's wines to the list at The Boiler Room shortly thereafter. You might be wondering why I titled this post Achs Paul but this is the Hungarian tradition (the Achs winery in Gols is just 9 kilometers to the Hungarian border) and everyone in the area refers to him this way. 

Paul is a Blaufränkisch specialist and his wines are noticeably more structured than those of Gernot Heinrich his Burgenland neighbor. The various Blaufränkisch bottlings especially require some special care if drinking them young. I would definitely recommend passing these back and forth between two decanters before serving them and if you're pouring by-the-glass these in a restaurant the bottles will have to be double decatned. That being said, the Austiran Reds (Blaufränkisch, St-Laurent, and Zweiglet), plus the Pinot Noir, and Pannobile* are some of the most serious, full-bodied, and vinous, you're likely to find in the Burgenland. We also sampled the 2008 Paul Achs "AchsWeiss" during lunch this day. This is 100% Sauvignon Blanc (some skin-contact) produced from a single 1200 liter barrel. In most vintages it is varietaly labeled but in this vintage Paul found the wine too reductive and "weird" and he declassified it to a simple "Weiss" (white wine) designation. I found this wine, however, to be ripe yet dry, loaded tropical fruit, juicy acidity, and found the perfect foil to a potato cream soup with pork belly.

*a note about Pannobile: The Pannobile group is an association of nine growers in Gols that was formed to produce a great regional wine. Each producer comes up with a blend (the varietal composition can vary), and then a Pannobile designation is decided by unanimous vote of the group. They are almost always blended wines and the wine can be either red or white. No international varietals are permitted except for Chardonnay and Pinot Gris for the white and Pinot Noir for the red. All of the fruit most come from Pannobile classified vineyards in Gols.

 

Tasting notes from my visit to Weingut Gernot Heinrich during Vievinum 2010:

2008 Heinrich Neuburger 

2007 Heinrich Blaufränkisch

2008 Heinrich Zweigelt

2008 Heinrich St. Laurent 

2007 Heinrich Pinot Noir

2007 Heinrich Pannobile

2007 Heinrich Gabarinza

2007 Heinrich Blaufränkisch Alter Berg

2007 Heinrich Salzberg

Austrian expert Philipp Blom has called Fred Loimer a “tireless perfectionist”, something that is evident the moment you set eyes on his stunning winery in the middle of the vineyards between Langenlois and Zöbing in the Kamptal. Loimer had peepholes drilled into the façade so you’re able to get your orientation straight. Loimer is a Grüner and Riesling specialist and the 2009s showed excellent precision and balance.

2009’s from Fred Loimer

2009 Loimer Zweigelt Rosé

2009 Fred Loimer Grüner Veltliner Lois

2009 Fred Loimer Riesling Lenz

2009 Loimer Riesling Kamptal DAC

2009 Loimer Grüner Veltliner Kamptal DAC

2009 Loimer Grüner Veltliner Langenlois Terrassen

2009 Loimer Grüner Veltliner Käferberg

2009 Loimer Grüner Veltliner Spiegel

jessebeckerMS

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Weingut Rudi Pichler might be my favorite producer in the Wachau but Tony Bodentein (Prager) might be the Wachau’s best producer. Not to take anything away from the outstanding wines of Franz Hirtzberger or F.X. Pichler but Bodenstein’s wines, especially the Rieslings, are the most chiseled, precise, and terroir-driven in the entire Wachau. I ran out of things to write while tasting through his ‘09’s at the winery during Vievinum this May. Bodenstein’s holdings are mainly in the Riesling-intensive Durnstein area. They’re all the famous rieden: Achleiten, Hollerin, Klaus…ALL of the ‘09’s are exceptional:

2009 Weingut Prager (Tony Bodenstein)

2009 Gruner Veltliner Federspiel Hinter der Burg

2009 Riesling Federspiel Steinriegel

2009 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Weitenberg

2009 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Liebenberg

2009 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Weissenkirchener Zwerithaler

2009 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Achleiten

2009 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Bodenstein Achleiten

2009 Prager Grüner Veltliner Stockkultur Achleiten

2009 Prager Riesling Smaragd Durnsteiner Kaiserberg

2009 Riesling Hollerin

2009 Prager Riesling Smaragd Steinriegl

2009 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten

2009 Prager Riesling Smaragd Klaus

2009 Prager Riesling Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein

jessebeckerMS

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Traveling west from Mautern, the Danube River takes a sharp turn at the village of Dürnstein. Rudy points out that the village has some gorgeous architecture and attracts a lot of tourists; it's also home to some of the Wachau's greatest rieden (vineyard sites): Mühlpoint, Steinertal, Loibenberg, Schütt, Hollerin, and Kellerberg.

Dürnstein gets