Labyrinth and Paradise of the Winelover´s Heart... Langenlois

The tour of the Czech Philharmonic in August 2007 to the Austrian city of Graffenegg left deep imprints on our minds due to two events – the emotive and absolutely unexpected resignation of the conductor Mácal from the post of the head of the orchestra and the viniculture experiences which that magnificent winemaking region provided us with in abundance.

The division of the orchestra into two groups, forced on us by the insufficient capacity of the local hotels, faced me with a Sophie's choice, which probably will not repeat very often: to prefer an accommodation in Krems, the entrance gate into the unique valley of Wachau (not only from the winemaker's point of view), or in Langenlois, the biggest Austrian winemaking village, where doorbells compete one with another which one of them has a more famous name written on it, and where anywhere you go everything is at hand? The thing that finally decided it was Loisium. A unique, daring and today already prototypal architectonic object, seated directly among the vineyards and completely devoted to wine, was too strong a temptation. I pulled the necessary strings, took prompt measures, drew attention of several other ardent wine lovers to this pleasing opportunity and then all I had to do was to look forward to the departure (after a long time).

Loisium really awakened the expected enthusiasm among the rest of the members of the orchestra, when it emerged in front of our eyes - after an endless zigzaging through the town lanes that put driving abilities of our bus drivers to a test - as some kind of an artifact fallen from space. The whole concept originated (above all) in the heads of several local winemakers, who surpass the frontiers of the region, country and maybe even the continent by their progressiveness. It is also to them, to whom Austria should be grateful for its winning and unwavering return to the peak of the winemaking world, they too helped to overcome the heritage of prejudices after the destructive impact of the „fridex scandal“ from the last century.

Loisium - one name for all that you can imagine that relates to vine. An accommodation solved in an architectonically unique way, a wine spa, top quality gastronomy based on wines, large historical wine cellars, an educational historic trail of production of vine and traditional wine varieties and wine bar and shop presenting with pride the local producers and much more. But first of all, elaborated details which delight people. Upon our arrival, when we felt a strong desire to set out for our first viniculture „exploration“ of the terrain, instead of just nodding their heads blankly, people in the reception desk showered us with information, maps, telephone numbers and good tips. Considering the „advanced“ time (19:00), when it was no longer possible to visit any particular winemaker (without making an appointment in advance), we appreciated very much the recommended „Heurigen“, where they surprised us very pleasantly by the quality of wines, range of their supply and above all, by an unexpectedly good level of service. They did not economize with glass, which many Czech wine lovers do not even possess (let alone that they would expect it in a wine bar as they know it).

We tasted:

85 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Ried Löss, Weingut Hiedler

87 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Ried Spiegel, Weingut Hiedler

83 Sauvignon blanc 2006, Ried Steinhaus, Weingut Hiedler

83 Riesling 2006, Ried Steinhaus, Weingut Hiedler

83 Riesling 2006, Ried Hochstrasse – Heiligenstein, Weingut Kirchhofer

81 Tintored 2004, (Zweigelt – Portugieser – Blauburger), Weingut Hiedler

83 Zweigelt 2004, Weingut Hiedler

The following day started with the usual spirit of work – a general rehearsal spiced by the already mentioned resignation of the chief conductor. Not even in Graffenegg, however, did the wine trace disappear – after all it is situated on the borders of the regions Kamptal and Donauland (today probably newly called – Wagram)! The chateau in the Metternich style has its own winery at its disposal (even though it is not part of the chateau complex) and it is also known for its untraditional cellars. Bottles of wine are resting in a burial vault instead of the deceased! Those of you, who would be inclined to inquire into the origin of potential animal aromas of the local wine, rest assured that the burial vault never served its true purpose:-)

Already during my first visit of Graffenegg (with the Tonkütler Orchester Vienna), the chateau cellars yielded an interesting secret: a Trockenbeerenauslese of the Müller Thurgau of the year of my birth – that is 1979. Even though this variety rarely produces great, let alone long - lived wines, this specimen fascinated me and not only because I was born at the same time. The oily, noble, colourful and complex wine has its future secure even after so many years. Moreover, it was available for an unexpectedly low price – it was not much higher than in the case of young wines in the offer! And so, while I was sitting at the podium, the obliging orchestra's technician was in the chateau shop selecting bottles according to my instructions with an appropriate, still not much dark colour of the content. These wines were ranked among the coveted specialities in my archive after the necessary recorking (only with the greatest effort was it possible to take out the corks from the bottle necks without ravelling them).

The time remaining until the evening departure for the concert was the only appropriate period for a visit of some of the winemakers, that is the reason why my colleague Mr. Suchánek and I did not procrastinate much after having arrived at the hotel. Fred Loimer, among the wines situated nearest to Loisium, was tempting us. Armed with a map, we set out for the journey. But behold, when we stopped at the crucial crossroads, a very convincingly looking cellar lane mistook us and we followed it instead of going along a not very visible path, which could not be easily recognized on the map. After tens of meters, surrounded mostly by evidently abandoned cellars, when nowhere seemed to be anything what could resemble the famous monolith of the winery of Fred Loimer, we started to be slightly sceptical. We calculated an alternative solution – to go to the edge of the town, to the hill which we were always passing by in the bus – we remembered little winemaking houses planted over the hillside as beads on a thread. In their vicinity, the majestic Heiligenstein, maybe the best vineyard hill in the whole Austria. But this meant to continue walking for some time again, moreover walking on the road. What surprise awaited us, when we had climbed up breathless between the vineyard rows to the top of the hill and we saw a signpost „Weigut Loimer“! By a great detour, but still, we got to the longed - for place. The black modernistic cube intensively attracts visitors. Unfortunately, employees were running about everywhere, in formic speed so to say, having full hands of work – drays of blue grapes had just arrived and waited impatiently to be processed. Under such circumstances, it seemed inappropriate to disturb, moreover, we were not able to find any point on the building that would looke like an official entrance. As many times in the past, a chance interfered; indeed, we usually have a mysterious luck during our viniculture wanderings! While we were hanging around the doors (I am surprised that we were not suspicious to anyone), a woman with a child came out of it, she had met us a little while ago as she was driving through the vineyard. It was necessary to possess a solid portion of Czech insolence to ask at such a moment if we could peak at the winery – luckily we have it:-)

We were invited into a spacious degustation room, which is a category in itself from the architectonic point of view. While the lady was attending to her offspring, we admired stern but elegant solution of the interior and a soil crossection of the company's vineyards. After a short while, our amiable guide lead us to the cellar kingdom. Regardless of the fact how the modern constructions stand on the surface, the cellars are historical and except for the inox steel tanks, they have preserved their traditional appearance. They are quite spacious, it is said that they served as an underground factory during the war (if I can rely sufficiently on my knowledge of German). Later they were connected with the outside entryway by a tunnel, so that they could be freely accessible to mechanization and this is something the winemakers speak really highly off. At the beginning, we were not expecting a degustation, but after we found out that our kind guide was Mrs. Loimer herself (how really lucky did we get again, didn't we?) and after she mentioned casually that her husband, besides Zweilgelt, also produces Pinot Noir from red wines, we could not resist.

And it was worth it! We were honoured by these wines:

86 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Terassen, Langenlois

88 Riesling 2006, Terassen, Langenlois

88 Pinot Noir 2005, Terassen, Langenlois

84 Zweigelt 2006, Kamptal

As regards white wines, I was impressed by the perfect, playful acids, concentrated, perfectly clear fruitiness and minerality that was not possible to overlook. Zweigelt lost few points because of its shorter body and less harmony – I noted that the wine did not have a captivating nobleness, but on the other hand, it is nobly honest. I was fascinated by its extremely youthful, shiningly purple - violet colour, which is seen only exceptionally. It was pleasant even in the nose. It is necessary to mention the style of the presentation – a winemaker from our country would first „try you out“ by a common wine and would serve the best wines only when sure that you are a wine expert. This is partially understandable, however, it does not deepen qualitative orientation of common customers – and ultimately, only winemakers themselves suffer a loss for this reason! Here, the wines of highest levels were offered immediately (only archive reserves are of higher quality in the sortiment of this winemaking company), even though Mrs. Loimer could have considered us to be some creatures of dubious origin coming from the East and she could not have known anything about our viniculture enthusiasm and experience. On top of that, we were politely warned that Zweigelt, which we wanted to taste after having tasted the first three wines, is not of the same category of quality. We met with this practice even the previous evening in Heurigen – they preferred to let us leave satisfied than to be stingy with us to earn few more Euros! Nevertheless, the king of the degustation became Pinot. Already as I was in the cellar, when I heard about its production, I was quite excited – Pinot is not such a frequent inhabitant of the Austrian borders, or at least it was not in the past. Fred Loimer is allegedly a great lover of this wine variety and he wanted to try how it would get on with the local terroir. No need to doubt it – this charismatic and stubborn man hit the bull's eye once again!! If he takes his Pinot by air to an exhibition in Burgundy, the French will be suspicious of being biased, if they ask him to present a passport at the airport in Dijon! Or else I do not understand Pinot Noir... I do not claim that it is related to Grand Cru Vougeot, or Gevrey – Chambertin with its style (only just the extent of intensity and complexity did not allow for its evaluation to surpass 90 points), however, it is a perfectly pure essence of the variety with a magnificent expression of minerality of its terroir, which you can hardly object to.

We were even cursorily introduced to the master sorcerer himself; this man is always in motion. Without having idea who are those two at the table, he did not hesitate to welcome us warmly as his guests. Only unwillingly were we leaving the pleasant winery and people and we regretted that we do not have more hands – for the distance to the hotel, even the one crate under the arm of each one of us was quite a burden. The bushes heavy with grapes enticed us to commit an offence – we were not able to resist and we picked mature ones. They were probably Pinot. It was sweet and greatly delicious. A chemical pesticide? No way! Biodynamics, that is the today's trend ruling over the vineyards!

Even though we were quite saturated by our experience, when arriving at our hotel, we were still having a craving to continue along the viniculture path. Ursin Haus on the square offered us an ideal way how to get to know other winemakers at least in an intermediated manner. This viniculture center is another one of the uncommon ideas of the local people. It holds enlightening events, presents wines of most producers on a selling exhibition and above all – each one of the represented winemakers has one of his/her bottles included into a self - service tasting box. It is possible to taste anyone of about 85 samples for the price of 10 Euros, if not all. Even here they manifested an uncommon hospitality. I decided to stay and degustate, while my colleague wanted to go back to the hotel. But at that moment, an employee came to us running – a very respected winemaker himself (we tasted his magnificent Chardonnay showered with medals) – carrying another glass and saying „no one is glad to be degustating alone“. This way the grand tasting costed us just a half of the price! My colleague was being quite diligent, I estimate that he tasted about 40 samples. I was slowed down by having to write down my notes and so I can offer you evaluation of „only“ these wines:

82 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Urgenstein, Weingartnerei Aichinger

81 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Steinhaus, Weingut Eitzinger

82 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Steihaus, Weingut Nostl

83 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Kittmannsberg, Weinbau Erich Kroneder

81 Grüner Veltliner 2006 „Luftikus“, Winzerhof Sax

81 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Hütbügl, Manfred Gruber

85 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Gobelsburger Steinsätz, Edmond Höfinger

85 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Zöbinger Steinjuwel, Franz Krammer

88 Chardonnay 2006, Reiberg, Wolfgang Groll

85 Riesling 2006, Heiligenstein, Familie Brandl

82 Riesling 2006, Zöbinger Heiligenstein, Weingut Bründlmayer

90 Riesling 2006, Gaisberg, Birgit Eichinger

81 Riesling 2006, Zöbing, Weingut Hirsch

84 Riesling 2006 Kabinett, Kamptal, Weingut Steininger

80 Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, Kamptal, Bruno Kirschbaum

83 Zweigelt 2004, Langenlois, Thomas Leitner

83 St. Laurent 2004, Ried Kirchgraben (Gobelsburger), Weingut Daschl

(for those that would be offended by our working moral, I stress that we spitted out all the wines tasted that day!)

After the end of the concert, my colleagues and I tasted (without spitting it out:-) from our purchased supplies in the hotel:

81 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Alte Reben, Wechselberg, Weingut Baumgartner

87 Grüner Veltliner 2006, Kamptal, Familiengut Rosner

After having returned home to Czechia, we were also pleased by:

87 Zweigelt 2003, Grande Reserve, Kamptal, Weingut Oskar Hager

During two days in Langenlois, I tasted only one bellow - average wine (Rivaner, disqualified, excluded from the evaluation), few honest average ones, many highly above - average ones and several exceptional wines. You can add the valuable experience in what the approach of winemakers to their potential customers should be like, the impression from the way of collective presentation and support, natural beauties of the landscape... Summed up – a very successful viniculture excursion and very thought - provoking. Our cellarmens are undoubtedly able to create great vines (see the evaluation), as well as their Austrian colleagues. However, if they are not able to suppress, at least for a while, their own commercial ambitions and self - conceited individualism (there are already exceptions emerging), hell knows if the world learns about them some day...