Few things are as exciting as realizing you are experiencing an undiscovered phenomenon. Like your cousin who was playing Nirvana tapes before they hit the radio, or the line cook flipping burgers next to Danny Meyer. You vibrate with the energy of the thing, you can’t wait for it to infect everyone else. You start passing out cassette tapes and inviting your friends out to dinner.
Today, that’s me and Burgenland.
The Wachau Valley is the epicenter of Austria’s greatest wines. In fact, to many wine consumers, the wines of the Wachau are the wines of Austria.
While that sentiment sells Austria short, ignoring many diverse and excellent wine regions, it’s not baseless. The Wachau’s vineyards, defined 1,000 years ago by local monks, are still recognized today for producing some of the world’s greatest white wines.
Monforte shines through its sheer diversity.
It does have quite a bit of limestone in its soils, but less than Serralunga, and in general the soil types, altitudes and orientations are as mixed up in Monforte as in any other village.
I adore Castiglione di Falletto because it is balanced. The best wines possess a regalness and composure that is only possible when you stray from the opposite ends of a spectrum and wander towards the happy middle.
Here you have wines that do have intense structure and aromas – of course, as this is Barolo! – but also poise.
La Morra is a very important village! And not just because it’s charming to visit and has a number of top producers and vineyard sites.
It’s also important because it produces a lot of wine! Look at any map of Barolo’s villages and you’ll see that La Morra is a giant blob taking over the entire northwest corner of the area. This blob produces around 25% of all Barolo.
