Blaufränkisch – The next generation

Austrian's red wine slims down

19 January 2013
Werner Elflein

Sunset in Burgenland

Austrian red wines have a hard time in this country. Almost ineradicable in the minds of consumers is the idea that they are always ponderous wines disfigured by new wood to the point of being unrecognisable as a grape variety, as was still common in the 1990s. We still have the impression that many producers give priority to concentration over elegance. But in the meantime, a counter-current to the mainstream is forming. Blaufränkisch, an autochthonous Austrian grape variety, benefits not least from this, as it needs neither abundant alcohol nor exaggerated wood make-up to produce convincing, tannin-rich red wines with fine acidity.

We specifically searched for “next generation” Blaufränkisch red wines and discovered a number of candidates. All of them largely met our expectations in the blind tasting. Only rarely used the new wood a little too well-intentioned to us, but far from excessive.

One particularity concerns the wines of the Weninger winery in Horitschon. In addition to its Burgenland vineyards, it also cultivates vineyards across the border on the Hungarian side. The Spérn Steiner was already considered the best and most expensive vineyard in western Hungary (now Burgenland) in 1680. The Blaufränkisch (Kékfrankos) has had its home here since the phylloxera disaster.

The wines at a glance

Markus Altenburger

Untere Hauptstraße 62
7093 Jois
Austria
Phone: +43 2160 71089
Fax: +43 2160 71089
Internet: www.markusaltenburger.com
E‑mail: contact@markusaltenburger.com

🯅	The rating of the wine is based on a single taster. The taster is named in the context of the rating. The tasting was either open or blind. In case of a blind tasting, it is explicitly labelled as such.
🯅🯅	The rating of the wine is based on two tasters. The tasters are named in the context of the rating. The tasting was carried out according to the four-eyes principle, in which both tasters agree on a joint rating.
🯅🯅🯅	The rating is based on a tasting by our jury and indicates the Mean value calculated by us from the individual ratings of the tasters. Our mean value is based on the median.
⚖	The wine was evaluated in a blind tasting. We have strict rules for blind tastings. The tasters do not receive any information that would allow them to identify the wines. The tasters are only given access to further information that goes beyond the subject matter if it is absolutely necessary for understanding the wines.
🕓	We only had limited time to taste the wine - typically during an open tasting event, such as a wine fair. It was therefore not possible to observe the development of the wine in the glass over a longer period of time. The informative value of our rating may therefore be limited under certain circumstances.
⛬	The wine was tasted as a barrel sample or before an official test number (Amtliche Prüfungsnummer or Staatliche Prüfnummer) was issued. We only accept samples of unfilled wines in exceptional cases, and then only if we can assume sufficient stability in the bottle for a period of at least three months.
▲	During our tasting, the wine showed conspicuous sensory characteristics. This does not necessarily have to be a wine fault. We categorise the quality and quantity of the abnormality and include it in the rating. Wine faults such as cork taint or an atypical ageing generally lead to a complete rejection.
	Tastings that refer to the same bottle of a wine are visually summarised by a dotted line.

The wines at a glance

Symbols