Wojciech Bońkowski
Master of Wine

Stadlmann Mandel-Höh 2005

Posted on 3 October 2011

Regular readers will know I have a soft spot for rare indigenous grape varieties. One of my favourites are Rotgipfler and Zierfandler from Austria. They might not be so obscure – 120 and 100 ha are still grown respectively – but surely they are curiosities.

Weingut Stadlmann Mandel-Höh vineyard Thermenregion Austria

The Mandel-Höh vineyard, source of today’s wine. © Weingut Stadlmann.

Rotgifpler and Zierfandler (a.k.a. Spätrot) are traditional of the Thermenregion area south of Vienna and have historically been blended into a powerful, aromatic wine with good ageing potential. Today they are experiencing a small renaissance, but are usually made separately into varietal wines. Rotgipfler is the more powerful of the two, yielding impressive, broad-shouldered whites that digest oak well. My favourite is the Rodauner Top Selektion from Karl Alphart.

Apart from Alphart several other estates make very good Rotgipfler, but not Zierfandler. It’s a more difficult grape to do well. It has higher acidity, less body, and the flavours are finer so the winemaking needs more precision. I have long been a fan of Weingut Stadlmann – their basic Zierfandler is a fine introduction to this quirky grape, and the Rotgipfler and Pinot Blanc are also excellent here. It is on the soft limestoney hill of the Mandel-Höh vineyard, however, that Zierfandler reaches its top expression and the Stadlmanns make their best wine.

Johann Stadlmann zierfandler Mandel-Höh 2005

Zierfandler: one of the gems of the wine world.

Delicious in its youth, this wine is also reputed for ageing potential so I gave it go and cellared the 2005 vintage since release. At age six it is a surprising wine. Not easy to ‘get’: upon opening it didn’t impress me so much. Slightly aged bouquet of honey and dried fruits, fresh acidity… but little else. Not the complexity and personality I was expecting.

I took a second and third tasting over 24 hours to really appreciate this uncommon wine. The thing is that it is pretty subtle and understated; there’s no excess. Instead of the brooding tertiary complexity of many aged whites, there’s a quiet interplay of fine nuances. Instead of big phenolic richness, plenty of pithy grapefruity acidic freshness for better balance. With time, there are interesting aromas coming up: citrus, Cox apple, pink grapefruit but also rose petals and almonds. Mandel-Höh means ‘the high place where almonds grow’, and although almonds are often a replacement descriptor (when you can’t smell anything in a wine, it’s safe to say almonds), I can really sense them here, with their fine balance of sweetish and bitterish.

Johann and Bernhard Stadlmann

Johann and Bernhard Stadlmann. © Weingut Stadlmann.

It’s one of those wines that don’t wow you but haunt you for hours after the last sip. At 17€ it is also a great buy, for drinking now or for ageing. Zierfandler – one of the little forgotten gems of the wine world.

Disclosure

Source of wine: own purchase.