SIEG!

Austria is best known for producing Adolf Hitler and, whilst they vehemently denied it after WW2, a good deal of Nazi ideology. Austria also produces wine which can be superb. As they did in WW2 where they virtually ruined both their country and their reputation, in 1985 Austrian winemakers ruined their wine industry through greed and arrogance. Greedy grapegrowers (and complicit winemakers) bolstered the must weight of their grape juice by adding Di-ethylene glycol. DEG is better known as anti-freeze or, if you are in Russia, cheap vodka. This added to alcohol levels and sweetness and was a way of demanding higher prices for wine from a poor vintage. It can also send people blind and could, in large quantities, kill someone. I was marketing a leading Austrian brand in 1985 and had some very interesting midnight telephone calls with the producers who at first denied involvement in the scandal. When I faxed through the DSIR lab test results they changed their tune and blamed their suppliers. I got full credit for the stock (about 25,000 bottles) which we had destroyed and no longer imported that brand. Arrogance is an Austrian trait. One of our current guests works for a college where foreign students come for a term or two. She looks after their welfare and recently on the arrival of a young Austrian lad suggested to him that he might like to join some of the other students on a ski trip to the South Island. Adolph junior said "Why should I want to do something like that? We have the best ski country in the world in Austria". I bet his grandfather still wears brown shirts.

Anyway, why Austria? Amongst the eclectic selection of wines that we have enjoyed over the last week was an Austrian red wine. It was 2001 Umathum St Laurent. St Laurent is an Austrian red grape that has French provenance and is most likely related to Pinot Noir. Apparently it is notoriously difficult to grow and ripen as is Pinot Noir. 2001 was a 'difficult' vintage in Austria. When an Austrian says that a vintage is 'difficult' it is probably like them saying that Hitler was 'naughty'. The wine was light - a  bit more like a Cabernet Franc than Pinot Noir - but still had a nice fruitiness to it. The alcohol was 12.5% which in today's terms was light reflecting the poor vintage (and the fact that they no longer add DEG). I'd file this wine away in the "interesting' file.