Winemonger.com

Alphart Neuburger 2009 is a remarkable bottle. As Josef Högl says, this grape variety needs very little moisture, sometimes the dew is sufficient? And for those of us accustomed to Neuburger in its Wachau incarnation, it is most frequently encountered as a Smaragd with more than 14% alcohol, and 10W-40 viscosity. Lagler in Spitz comes to mind, as a grower who is typically impressive in this idiom. But in the limestone-laced brown soils of the Thermenregion, Alphart has managed to bottle a Neuburger that is finely-tuned and racy, a wine that succeeds not on horsepower alone, but on its handling and agility. This wine reminds us very handily that Neuburger came about as a spontaneous crossing of Roter Veltliner with Sylvaner and that it neatly encourages the potential aromaticity of the latter while incorporating the body and texture of the former.

• 100 % - Neuburger (AKA Gruner Burgunder)

One of our happiest expansions in 2009 has involved moving into a new—for us—growing district: the Thermenregion. This area among the hot springs south of Vienna was created from the former Anbaugebieten Bad Vöslau and Gumpoldskirchen in 1985.

Here wine grapes are blessed by the influence of the Pannonian climate, with hot summers and dry autumns—and an average of 1800 hours sunshine each year. Constant air-currents guarantee that in autumn the grapes will be quickly dried after rainfall or dew. And geology has blessed the Thermen with a wealth of different soils: loamy clay, sandy loam and brown earth, with a high degree of fossil-limestone blended in. Underneath all that it is supported by a layer of decomposed rock, while local bands of flood-plain help with drainage and warming.

And we’ve moved into the neighborhood with considerable fanfare, in that we can now offer you the wines of the Karl Alphart estate in Traiskirchen. Among the leaders in the Thermen, Alphart has 12 hectares of vines planted, with a heavy emphasis on the unique and fascinating local variety Rotgipfler—and for the time being, we can offer you his equally enticing Zierfandler.

He rounds this out by offering a Neuburger which shows a sort of style and grace that the heavyweight Smaragd bottlings from this variety in the Wachau can only dream about. This and most of Alphart’s wines are elaborated in old barrels of 3000-liter capacity.

Alphart’s special single-vineyard Rotgipfler Rodauner has for years been known as one of the very best white wines in Austria—juicy, noble and clear as a chime with an unmistakably intensity of aroma and flavor.

Thermenregion: Thermen, as in thermal, region...

This is the locale of the warm springs south of Vienna, made up of 2,450 hectares of vines on the edge of the Vienna Woods, a region created in 1985 by combining the former growing districts Bad Vöslau and Gumpoldskirchen.

Bearing a new name nearly a quarter-century, it's a ancient winegrowing area, grapes have flourished here for more than 2000 years, and the Roman legionaries stationed in Vienna and Carnuntum were happy to expand their cultivation of the vine to these friendly neighboring precincts. That, and they visited the hot springs in the region, around which grew the thriving municipality now called Baden bei Wien, where they built the town of Aquae.

Here winegrowing benefits from the Pannonian climate, with its warm summers and dry autumnal weather conditions, this allows ripening grapes to linger late upon their vines. There's also a great deal of sunshine here, encouraging ripeness.

One major attraction draws from the resurgence of two white heritage grape-varieties: the Rotgipfler and the Zierfandler. These thrive particularly in the northern precincts near Vienna, while in the southern portion of Thermenregion it's the classic Austrian red variety St Laurent that puts the game in motion. Rotgipfler and Zierfandler appear together in cuvees (often called Spätrot-Rotgipfler) or as monovarietal wines. They both do well in the heavy soils of clay and brown earth, which typically contains a significant measure of limestone. Neuburger flourishes here as well, and the red grape Blauer Portugieser, which was once called Vöslauer, because of its affinity for the region. Thermenregion offers, however, a diversity of soil types, and the red wines grow oftentimes in spare and stony soils.