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Among a portfolio of special and distinctive wines, this one manages to stand out. A collaboration between growers Hannes Schuster and Moric’s Roland Velich, Jagini Blaufränkisch: grown from selected old-vines sites in Hannes Schuster?s neighborhood of Zagersdorf- finds its way to wine under Roland’s very gentle and patient hand. Jagini offers quite a striking contrast to the more linear minerality of the Moric wines from Mittelburgenland, showing a succulence of fruit and a luxuriance of texture that even goes beyond what one normally associates with the Neusiedlersee Hügelland, those gently inclined sunny hillsides on the West side of the lake, where people have been making wine for the better part of three thousand years. This wine aims to preserve some of that ancient heritage, and hits the mark dead-center.
This is now the second Jagini to come our way, and like wines from either parent estate from the not-entirely-easy 2008 vintage, this bottling shows greater concentration and density than the easier 2007 did. The characteristic aromas and flavors of sour cherry and plum are reinforced with a fine minerality and finely woven refined tannins. Quite fullbodied, the 08er Jagini nearly needs to be chewed; it’s that rich and succulent. Again, there is no footprint of cooperage, just the Neusiedl Hillsides articulating the message of its soils through the medium of the Blaufraenkisch vines grown in them. NB. We are finding out more with every vintage about the capabilities and potential of this grape variety.

• 100 % - Blaufrankisch (AKA Lemberger, Blauer Limberger, Kekfrankos)

The west side of the lake... The Austrian wine establishment has now begun to call this region Leithaberg, after the local hillsides themselves, although it is hard to imagine winegrowing in this region without the benificent influence of the lake. The free city of Rust has been famous for its sweet wines for centuries, now producing memorable reds and dry whites as well. The towns of St Margarethen, Donnerskirchen and Grosshöflein are all proving to be sources of excellent grapes from the varieties Blaufränkisch and St Laurent, as well as for the more surprising Sauvignon Blanc. The major municipality Eisenstadt is the capital of Burgenland; the area has been settled since the early Iron Age, and evidence of viticulture exists in Celtic hill burials from nearly three thousand years ago.