Had a breakfast a couple of weeks back with the boys and girls from Wines of Austria. We all got treated to a talk from one of the most enigmatic people in the European wine world, the head of Wines of Austria himself, Herr Willy Klinger. Top name, top man. And there’s plenty for Willy and his wine producers to be buzzing about in 2018.
First up, the Austrians have had an absolute brahma with the 2017 vintage. Western Europe have lost massive swathes of production to the cold snap in April 2017, which killed nearly 70% of the buds before they had the chance to become grapes. In Austria, they missed it by 1 degrees, and have ended up with their biggest crop in 7 years. The world wants wine? The Austrians have got it!
But the thing that really perked my interest was the bubbles. Willy was chatting about the move to premiumise, and laying down the laws in which to do that. One area they’re doing it is Sekt, the Austrian sparkling wine. The UK and Germany, 2 of Austria’s largest export markets, are bubbles mad! So giving punters rungs of Sekt can’t help but nail it in my view. We’re going to have:
Sekt Classic– entry level, think standard Cava or Crémant
Sekt Reserve– mid range, think house Champagne or house English
Sekt Große Reserve– top end, single vineyard stuff, think vintage Champagne
Fish n’ Chip Friday’s going to have a new buddy from now on. Bring on the Sekt!
Cheers
I was a guest of Wines of Austria at their London tasting on the 5thFebruary. Keep your eyes out for the new Sekt categories from Spring 2018 in the UK.
PHOTO: Austrian Wines Website
