Wojciech Bońkowski
Master of Wine
Livio Felluga Colli Orientali del Friuli Riserva Sossó 2000
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Livio Felluga Sossò 2000

Orange wine works great with goose; world-class Merlot from Italy.

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Blau & Blau

A reader recently commented on my blog note from two years ago. It actually had me thinking whether I’d not been too harsh towards Austrian red wines. Easy to check…

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Refreshing Austria

The annual Austrian wine tasting in Warsaw brings a major surprise: the zesty, vibrant, mineral red wines of Leithaberg. Totally obscure 10 years ago, now awarded with its own DAC classification, and the hottest address in vinous Austria.

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Happy New Year

Dear Readers, best wishes for the New Year!
 
I’m not very fond of self-referential blogging but want to say on this festive occasion how rewarding it has been to run this blog and receive comments and encouragement. As I’ve topped 10,000 visits to this modest diary in exactly one year of sharing my wine and tea drinking with you, it’s proved a great experience overall. 
No big New Year’s Eve celebrations chez Bońkowski this year: we’ve been babysitting and so Champagne has been limited to a few glasses of the Pierre Moncuit Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Cuvée Pierre Moncuit-Delos – a crisp, driven, even slightly greenish Chardonnay that proved just a bit too young (though with over two years of disgorging), and a babysitter’s best friend – Moscato d’Asti. Paolo Saracco’s 2009 is a gorgeous glassful of fresh grapes, citrus and spring flowers, with balanced sweetness and great acidity, too. With 5% alcohol it was harmless to down the bottle between two, and that’s a great asset on New Year’s Eve if you ask me.
It’s my personal habit to open the best sweet wine I have (or one of the best) on New Year. Dessert wines lend themselves well to the relaxed late-morning pace I adopt on this day. This year, it was the Alois Kracher TBA No. 3 Scheurebe 1996. The late Alois Kracher was one of the greatest champions of botrytis wine in the world. Whatever the vintage, grape variety, and sweetness level he always managed to make a wine taste balanced and complete. This bottle is no different. It pours a deep amber and opens with an exhilarating liquid peach gelée nose, followed by lovely notes of toast, poppy seed and minerality. It’s really positively Tokaj-like both in the bouquet and the very good acidity that enlivens this 150+-grams-sugar wine. The palate is expansive and mildly mature, with that unmistakeable autumnal, fallen-leafy, honeyed character of great botrytis wine, and a finish that is growingly dry. It’s an auspicious wine for 2010. Happy New Year!
Disclaimer:
Source of wines: Moncuit Champagne – sample from the producer, Saracco Moscato, Kracher TBA – own purchases.
 
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Münzenrieder Chardonnay TBA 1998

Patience pays

With two excuses – the awful aftertaste of the sweet Gambellaras I reported on here, and my ongoing Austrian mini-series – I opened this old(ish) bottle of Austrian dessert wine from the cellar.

The Münzenrieder name may not enjoy the galactic reputation of Kracher or Triebaumer but I have always enjoyed their range of sweet wines, especially the Beerenauslesen and Trockenbeerenauslesen which are both affordable and reliable. 1998 was a great vintage for Austrian sweet wines, and at age 10 these wines are now providing a lot of excitement while also showing where Austria really stands in the sweet wine league.

The Trockenbeerenauslese Chardonnay 1998 (9.5% alcohol and some 220+ g residual sugar, I’m guessing) is fully mature now. A very deep amber-brown colour, and a nose of a caramelised-mature botrytis wine with not much complexity at first. Palate shows burnt brown sugar and a touch of bacon-like oakiness. While initially this TBA lacks personality and freshness, time in the glass is bringing quite some sensual bliss: a seriously rich, concentrated wine with generous botrytis. Very good indeed.

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Austrian trade tasting

My top picks from the annual Austrian trade tasting in Warsaw, including some delicious whites from the lesser-known Wagram region.

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Beethovenian wine

What wines did Beethoven enjoy?

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