New York's Wine Critics Are Discovering Our Local Blaufraenkisch Reds!

Fairly unknown, but once tried never forgotten...

One can imagine that the average palate of a New York Sommelier is rather jaded because they have such a vast variety of wines to taste. Mostly great wines but as I say, once in a while a red wine varietal comes along that somehow puts the sparkle back in their taste buds and a feeling of having found that proverbial nugget of gold.

For the last few years, I have been bragging about, writing about and luckily sipping our fabulous Blaufränkisch reds. The delightful, delectable, divinely tasting red wine produced around our village. My own mum makes fantastic wine, but alas you'll only get to taste it when on holiday, as she doesn't produce enough to do any shipping.

The new guard of vintners ( winemakers ) in our village have taken the wine world by storm. Most of them come from a long line of winemakers and I can picture them as toddlers having being there to imbibe their parental vintner's know how.

Take Christoph Wachter for example, who is a young vintner with the unique ability to transform humble grapes into eloquent and unforgettable treasures in a bottle, and who has won many awards for his excellent wine making skills and vintages. It was no surprise to me, that when the New York Times ran an article on Blaufränkisch and its brilliance, Christoph's name and wine was on their top 10 list. ( Thank you Polly for sending me the link. )

Our area is renowned for their Blaufränkisch wines ( and it has to be certified twice before it gets a quality seal ) and as a wine lover, it feels like a wink of fortune to have such high caliber wine estates within walking distance. ( There is never an even remote chance of running out of wine...) Apart from being as proud as punch, I am so glad that the wine glitterati of the world is sitting up and taking notice of our locally produced wines.

Of course, the cherry on the top in our village is that the Wachter-Wieslers Restaurant owned by Christoph's family has just received the official nod on their culinary abilities and they can now be called one of Burgenland's top 5 culinary destinations. Coupled with their world class wines it should tempt wine lovers, sommeliers and foodies to spend a weekend in our part of the world. A part that I tend to equate to paradise....

Wachter-Wieslers Ratschen...Top Restaurant and Inn.

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