The Year's Most Exciting Wines

How does one even begin to narrow down all the choices of high-rate wines into one list of the Year's Most Exciting Wines? Wine Spectator has managed to do tackle that very feat, releasing a Top 100 List At A Glance. There's even more in-depth coverage that is available on the site for a brief period of time free of charge, with profiles, tasting notes, and videos of many of the stand-out products.

What managed to catch my eye was that a wine I just happened to introduce on the Drinks blog in my "tales of three cities" roundup, the Stadt Krems Gruner Veltliner, made the final cut! The Austrian wine of the Kremstal region sits proudly at No. 93 on the list - another Austrian protege, the Knoll Gruner Veltliner, made it to No. 72.

Attached here is a PDF profiling the wines at a glance; so now begins the task of stocking up on all these fantastic bottles!

Cheers!
SJ

Different Strokes for Different Folks

As the old saying goes, when in Rome do as the Romans do. And, with all my traveling over the last few weeks or so, I’ve got a (warning: long!) post that adopts many of the drinking habits in the three different US cities who welcomed me with gorgeous fall weather, and of course, delicious drinks. Here goes:

Portland, OR and Wine:

While Portland, Oregon has deservedly earned the reputation of being a beer or spirits city before wine, one of my greatest finds in the downtown area, just a dash up 12th Street from the plethora of alluring food carts, was a restaurant and wine bar fit for northern Europe. As described on its website, Gruner “draws on the affinity between the geographies of the Pacific Northwest and the alpine regions of northern Europe,” namely Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. It just so happened that, many many time zones away, the EWBC was streaming live when I stumbled into Gruner for lunch on a busy Friday afternoon. Why not indulge in glass of vino!?

I happily elected the only Gruener Veltliner on the lunch menu available by the glass, a 2009 Stadt Krems of the Kremstal region. After consulting with wine guru Constance and her post on the Austrian Wine USA blog, I learned that this fresh and fruit-forward Gruener is part of a municipality of 52 vineyards in Austria. I’d recommend giving the Austrian Wine Blog a read to learn more about these particular Austrian vineyards.

While the food was hearty and flavorful, the service at Gruner during this particular visit was anything but memorable. What did help to end my visit on a pleasant note was the curious method of presenting my check in a worn paperback book. My particular novel was Weimar Culture by Peter Gay, a reflection of 20^th century culture in Germany; even more to my pleasure, the first page I flipped to was Gay’s written portrait (along with images, too) of the 1920 expressionist thriller The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Loved it!

Boulder, CO and Beer:

While I certainly had heard the tales before making my first visit to Boulder, Colorado for the 1^st Beer Bloggers Conference, I didn’t realize just how beer-centric this college mountain town is. Needless to say, I was both overwhelmed and impressed. In what was dubbed “The Night of Many Bottles”, I had the opportunity to try Denver-local Bush & Bull’s seasonal Royal Oil, a 12% ABV English-style barley wine called Royal Oil, which is aged for two years in whiskey barrels. Tasting like chocolate-covered cherries and oak from the whiskey barrels, this sweet, malty beer was among my favorite seasonal selection in the plethora of Colorado selections.

My other particularly favorite offering was, ironically, the last beer I sampled at BBC10 – the Agave Wheat from Breckenridge Brewery. While pale ales are by no means at the top of my beer-drinking list, this beer to me was completely refreshing and offered a light amount of hops that wasn’t too overbearing or bitter. Plus, the subtle flavoring of agave was right up my alley! Mix a glass 50-50 of Agave Wheat with orange juice and you have yourself a lip-smacking mimosa of sorts – from my picture, you can see it was the perfect "breakfast of champions" for the Sunday morning crowd! Now, about convincing Breckenridge Brewery to distribute to CT…

Beverly Hills, CA and Spirits:

What spirits do you say? Rum, rum, and more rum! That's what I found myself drinking after my adventures meandering through posh Beverly Hills along Wilshire Boulevard led me to the Trader Vic's Mai Tai Lounge poolside at the Beverly Hilton hotel. I pulled myself up to the bar and ordered - but what else? - the Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron Original Mai Tai.

Trader Vic Mai Tai:

• 1 oz light rum
• 1 oz gold rum
• 1/2 oz orange curacao
  
• 1/2 oz orgeat syrup
  
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• Float 1 oz dark rum
  

Build in a cocktail shaker and roll between the glass without straining. Garnish with speared cherry and pineapple chunk, and a mint sprig.

Boy, was that cocktail well worth the hype! I also found myself downing a Zombie shortly after my Mai Tai "mysteriously" disappeared; pictured to the right, it was a beautiful version of Donn the Beachcomber's classic of gold and dark rums and it vanished almost as quickly as that damned Mai Tai.

Phew! I have loved discovering all the different drinking trends around the country and hope to continue the adventure more soon! So what's coming up next in my imbibing adventures? Stay tuned to D4TH to find out!

Cheers for now!
SJ

Austria IS a tourist destination!

What are some of the world’s most appealing wine destinations? This was the exact question Helen Cross pitted at her blog Simon Seeks when she sought us out for help.

Lucky for her, I had the perfect solution – Austria! It may come as a surprise that we have all developed some pretty close ties to the Eastern European country, but I shall explain.

Constance works with the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, whereas I have sung the praises of Absinthe Mata Hari, produced locally in Vienna. And Steve will be traveling back to Vienna in just over a month! Together, we helped to sling Austria to the top of Helen’s post on tourism. Give it a read here.

Constance had the opportunity recently to travel to Vienna and experience firsthand the majestic palaces and roaring hills I thought only existed in movies (The Sound of Music, anyone?). But, from her pictures and her glowing stories, Austria – and particularly Vienna – is a not to be missed destination for wine and spirits.

But what are some other wine and/or spirits destinations that are not to be missed on your lists of global traveling?
Feel free to leave us comments. We are, of course, always happy to talk on all things Austria :)

Cheers!

SJ

(Photo Courtesy of VieVinum 2010)

Gruvy Cocktails

Because of our association with the blog, AustrianWinesUSA.com , we’ve developed a gruvy relationship with Austrian wines and viniculture. In particular, I’ve grown an affinity for Gruener Veltliner (For those of you who don’t me very well yet, turning me into a Gruener fan was quite the feat – I typically steer clear of white wines….).

But an Austrian-themed cocktail particularly caught my eye this past week when Anne Brockhoff (blogger at Food Drink Life) wrote an article in a Kansas City paper disclosing the awesome mixology prowess of KC’s growing cocktail scene and Bartenders Alliance.

Mark Church, bartender at Grünauer in Kansas City was declared the bar champion of the 2010 Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition with his Refined Austrian Cocktail. The recipe calls for a lot of ingredients not stocked behind the average cocktailian’s bar, but I’m anxious to start collecting and concocting. I do already have the Kirschwasser liqueuer; Hiram Walker makes a fantastic all natural kirsch liqueur.

The Refined Austrian Cocktail:
Austrian gin, Austrian brandy, house-infused aromatized wine, Kirsch liqueur and homemade aromatic bitters, garnished with a grilled orange wheel

Also, if someone could please explain to me what exactly “house-infused aromatized wine” is, I would be greatly indebted to your help! :)

So pay a visit to Anne’s article and read up on some of the other great bartenders and their highly-praised cocktails judged by BAR partner and KC’s own Doug Frost. TJ Vytalcil’s Silver and Sand cocktail particularly whetted my booze-y appetite as well.

So, as my dear friend Ron Burgandy would say: “Stay classy, Kansas City.” I can’t wait to come and give your cocktails a try!

Cheers!
SJ