Austria’s most important wine fair: Vievinum
The first Vievinum was held in 1998, and this 11th edition marks its 20th anniversary. The sprawling event was held at the Hofburg Palace from 9-11 June, with pre-events happening on 7 and 8 June.
There was something special in the air at this year’s edition of Vievinum, and it wasn’t just the unusually hot weather that steambathed the attendees at Hofburg Palace.
Spotted among the crowd was Raimonds Tomsons from Riga, who was awarded best sommelier in Europe and Africa in 2017 and will be competing for the world title in 2019. The lanky Latvian was on the hunt for natural wines. The fair hosted 15,000 attendees from over 45 countries, who were there to meet and taste wines from some 550 Austrian winegrowers. The impressive organisation included 1,150 invited professional wine trade guests of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB).
Flying in from Hong Kong was Sarah Heller MW who was there to joinly present the Almásy Collection together with Matthias Krön and Erasmus Almásy. The project is an exciting curation of traditional wines from Central Europe, united by the icon of Bernstein Castle located on the Austria-hungary border. The bottles are marked by their distance from the castle, for instance, 72km for a sparkling Gruner Veltiner, and 248km for a Slovenian Pinela, an aromatic, soft rounded grape with ample charms. “It’s a cultural project through wine,” enthuses Heller, who has tasted and chosen the wines together with the team.
Equally dazzling was the lineup of masterclasses and events that accompanied the event. Anne Krebiehl MW presented a lively, early morning blind tasting masterclass on Zweigelt, where she expounded on Austrian wine’s “squeaky clean” reputation and its strictest laws in the world. Zweitgelt, formerly known as Rotburger, is a stable and hardy crossing, born from St Laurent and Bläufrankisch in 1922, that produces wines of many facets.
Two outstanding grapes came from Gebershuber Winery in Gumpoldskirchen, 25km south of Vienna. Zierfandler (or Spätrot) and Rotgipfler (traditionally blended with Zierflandler) originated from this area in the Thermenregion, and is still the only region where it thrives, accounting for less than 0.2% of grapes in Austria. Owner Johannes Gebershuber arranged an incredible vintage tasting for a small group of media, starting from the 1948 vintage to present day 2016. The styles up to 1988 that we sampled were mainly Spatlese and Auslese, with fine acidity and even freshness in the long lived bottles – the 1954 and 1976 stood out. From 2004, and the 2010 to 2016, the tastings revolved around single vineyard Zierfandler from the steep Modler plot. The next Vievinum takes place from 6-8 June 2020.