People who’ve never done it are always drastically underestimating how much mental concentration professional wine tasting demands and what a toll it takes on the human body when it’s undertaken for a longer period of time. This is my 5th day in a row of virtually dawn to dusk wine tasting here in Austria, but only the first full day of the VieVinum wine fair in Vienna. I quickly lost count of how many dry Rieslings and dry Grüner Veltliner, plus a smattering of other wines that I tasted there, and although there were a lot of very good wines and some great ones two I wondered if I was simply too exhausted to be really bowled over by something. Then it happened at the stand of Pichler-Krutzler, the small winery in Dürnstein/Wachau run by Elizabeth Pichler (daughter of F.X. Pichler) and Erich Krutzler (originally from the Krutzler winery in Südburgenland). All the dry Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners I tasted there were very impressed, but the dry 2013 In der Wand Riesling was the most exciting wine I tasted all day, breathtakingly brilliant, and perfectly balanced. I know it might just be me, but I found the interplay of the racy acidity, sleek body and pristine white peach fruit in this wine seriously erotic. Congratulations to the couple pictured above for making my day!
