Fatty Crabs & Austrians

The first thing that you get when you Google "Austrian Riesling" is "Did you mean Australian Riesling?" Certainly out here in Vancouver, you're far more likely to find an Aussie wine over an Austrian one any day - and, if you do run across an Austrian wine, it's likely a Gruner Veltliner or a Zweigelt.

Bur here we were at Fatty Crab with Berra Yogi, getting ready to chow down on our Asian-inspired tapas, and lo and behold, we're being served an Austrian wine. It was a suggestion of the sommelier when Boo said that he didn't really want any noticeable sweetness to the wine. I'd actually thought that it was a German wine that we'd ordered because of the name, but then I saw Osterreich on the label after we'd had a glass or so and I took a better look at the bottle.

87. 2007 Weingut Brundlmeyer Riesling Kamptaler Terrasen (Kamptal - Austria)

I couldn't find out much about this wine or the winery online. In general, Austrian Rieslings take a back seat to Gruner Veltliner, but it would seem that the good Rieslings can rank right up there with the best of the Germans and the rest of the world producers. It just isn't all that common to find them because the local Austrian market buys up the majority of the good wines.

From what I could find, Brundlmeyer is a known and established producer in Austria. I noted in one "article" that their wines were some of the first Austrian wines to find an overseas market. The winery is located in the Kamptal region which is one of the country's top regions and, according to Jancis Robinson, the Riesling grape reigns in Kamptal. I also read that there are notes on local wines going back to 1280 in the Langenlois Abbey Registry.

I don't think this was the finest wine that Brundlmeyer produces. This was so acidic even Boo was commenting that he wished he'd sat back and kept quiet about the "no sweetness" comment. It wasn't the greatest match to the spiciness of the dishes but it certainly gave us a novel entry for The List.