CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
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CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
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Austrian wine competes with best Europe has to offer
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-03 09:35 A focused marketing campaign seeks to draw tourists into villages like Rust, home to vintners like Hans Feiner. He was the inspiration for a television series about vintners. Indeed, most people here give off the impression of being wine experts - owners of wineries, perhaps - especially when they animatedly speak about red wine. In the town of Gols, on the northeast bank of the Neusiedler Lake, visitors can sample the Pannobile cuvees from a group of nine young vintners. They named their fine wine after the old Roman region of Pannonia. Birgit Braunstein, a member of the group, enthuses about her red blaufrankisch, calling it "our native answer to burgundy". Alfred Gesellmann, who lives further south in Deutschkreutz, has his own style. "Globetrotters grow everywhere," he says. The local wineries offer wines from the Mittelburgland region. Placards placed by the wines tell enthusiasts what kind of tanning agents they should taste. "Fine-grained tannins, close-meshed lattice of tanning agents, soft and young tannin reflexes, compact tannin structures," they read. If that's too complicated, comments like, "It makes you want to drink it" or, "It goes down well" are both acceptable. Further north, new vines are being planted for the unique Burgenland style on the Leitha Mountains. A fine green veltiner grows here. But along the water, nature and the vineyards do not always coexist peacefully. White donkeys and water buffalo graze here while farmers raise mangalitsan pigs. There are about 320 kinds of birds. All of these can be a plague to vintners. In Apleton, along the lake's east bank, renowned vintner Roland Velich enthuses about the region's identity and variety. "Our strengths create the basis that allows all this -- the ability to create world-class red, white and sweet wines within a range of 35 km." Velich has already won some international competitions with his white chardonnays. His dream is called "3B", the hope that "people will mention Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Burgenland in the same breath".
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