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Austrian
wines part 5
Alois
Kracher:
the waiting game
Alois Kracher is one of the world’s great sweet wine
makers. As I was tasting through the line-up of his 12 numbered sweet
cuvées from the 2002 vintage, I was amazed by not just the
consistency of quality, but the way each wine expressed its own
personality.
In some ways the wines reflect the man: Kracher himself
is a striking character. He’s the sort of guy that looks you in the
eye as he gives you a bone-crunching handshake.
We gathered in Illmitz on a damp autumn evening for a
prelude to the main event the following day: the annual showing of the
new releases. In mid-October Illmitz, near the Hungarian border, has a
sleepy, out-of-season feel to it. This atmosphere is compounded by the
fact that it’s dark and drizzling as we arrive.
 It would be a much livelier place in mid summer, as
Lake Neuseidl is a big draw for holidaymakers. Indeed, we meet for
dinner in the restaurant at a large holiday complex – so large, in
fact, that Valentina, our host from Austrian PR agency Wine and
Partners, gets hideously lost on the way out and we end up driving for
ages on a confusing road network though endless chalets and caravans.
Slightly surreal.
The particular area where Kracher has his vineyards is
called the ‘Seewinkel’, a stretch some 20 km wide along the shore
of lake Neusiedl in the Burgenland region. It’s a special location:
during the cool autumn evenings a heavy fog from the lake develops,
which hangs around the vineyards until midday. These are conditions
tailor made for botrytis, the noble rot, a vital ingredient for making
great sweet wine.
Making these wines is a waiting game. The grapes are
left on the vine well into Autumn – so they need to be heavily
netted heavily to protect them from hungry birds – and it’s a
question of letting the rain and fog provide the right conditions for
botrytis to attack the already ripe grapes. It must be a nervous
business to be in.
In
the vineyards: the netting is essential of the birds would strip the
vines clean
at this time of year
Kracher began making wines in 1981, when he took over
from his father. It’s true to say that his efforts – in both
making great wines and also marketing them enthusiastically – have
almost single-handedly put the Neusiederslee region on the map as one
of the world’s leading sweet wine regions.
Two styles of wine are made. Zwischen den Seen (between
the lakes) wines are made with a focus on freshness and fruit,
fermented in stainless steel. The Nouvelle Vague wines are vinified
and aged in barriques. The cuvees are labelled with numbers reflecting
concentration; in 1995, for example, there were 15, and in 2002 there
are 12. Within the numbering scheme, the wine with best balance is
labelled ‘Grande Cuvée’.
Some years, things go right. Some years they don’t.
This is partly why Kracher has diversified – he runs a wine import
company, and makes products such as wine vinegars, cheeses, wine
jellies and chocolates in partnership with other expert producers.
These other businesses help to keep the cashflow going so that Kracher
can continue to be obsessive about the quality of his wines.
2002 and 2003 were contrasting years. 2002 is one of
the best vintages he has experienced – Kracher puts it on a par with
1999, both just behind 1995 which remains his best vintage ever. 2003
was a disaster and won’t result in any top sweet wines, because of
the paucity of botrytis this year.
The
2002 releases
‘After harvest we had 58 different lots of
trockenbeerenauslese (TBA)’, says Kracher. ‘Then we put together
what works together in terms of flavour’. In the vineyard Kracher
has 78 parcels to work with, totalling 32 hectares, in three different
crus. Two thirds are on gravelly soil, and a third is on a mix of
gravel and sand.
 Kracher
Zweigelt TBA No 1 Nouvelle Vague 2002
(100% Zweigelt, 147. 5 g/l residual sugar)
Just one and a half barriques of this unusual wine were made. It’s
made with a red wine grape, Zweigelt, and the thicker skins make this
a microbiologically hazardous ferment. It’s an orange brown colour
with a sweet, intense nose of herby, candied fruit, and hints of brown
sugar. The palate is smooth, sweet, intense and elegant. There’s a
savoury structured bite to the finish. Notes of tea and herbs, too.
Very interesting wine with great depth. Very good/excellent 92/100
Kracher Chardonnay TBA No 2 Nouvelle Vague 2002
(205.8 g/l residual sugar)
Yellow/gold colour. Bright forward nose of fresh lemony fruit with an
apricotty edge. Some tropical fruit and hints of vanilla. Clean and
fresh. The palate is ripe and sweet with lovely rich fruit. Harmonious
and balanced, this is youthful at the moment with no rough edges. An
elegant modern wine. Very good/excellent 92/100
Kracher Welchriesling TBA No 3 Zwischen den Seen 2002
(208 g/l residual sugar)
The Welschriesling variety makes up about half of the grapes that
enter the Kracher winery, and is known for its small berries. This is
a yellow/gold colour and has a bright, forward sweet nose of
marmalade, apricot and candied fruit. Quite smooth and fruity with a
lemony edge. The palate has a lovely contrast between the herby fruit
and the apricotty botrytis, with some spice and good acid on the
finish. Very good/excellent 93/100
Kracher Muskat Ottonel TBA No 4 Zwischen den Seen
2002
(222.9 g/l residual sugar)
This is a difficult, thick skinned grape variety which has flowering
problems and often plays up during fermentation. There are more than
100 different Muscat varieties in the world, but less than 100 ha of
this particular one globally. Open, ripe grapey nose. Very rich and
full, with a musky richness and subtle herbal complexity. Pretty and
perfumed. The palate is thick, viscous and super sweet with a real
thickness to it. A fat, intense wine. Very good/excellent 91/100
|
Magnums of the full set of 10
TBAs from 2000 |
Kracher Scheurebe TBA No 5 Zwischen den Seen 2002
(214.7 g/l residual sugar)
Sweet, quite tight nose of brown sugar, fruit, caramel and some herbs.
The palate is viscous and sweet with a bold richness to the smooth
fruit and a subtle spicy edge. Rounded and intense. Very
good/excellent 93/100
Kracher Scheurebe
TBA No 6 Zwischen den Seen 2002
(233 g/l residual sugar)
Lemony freshness to the dense herby nose, which is sweet and full. The
palate is rounded and intense with a fresh lemony intensity. It’s
interesting to note the differences between this and no 5, both from
the same variety. This is lighter and fresher. There’s no racking
after fermentation in this wine. Because of yeast contact primary
fruit is lost, but minerality, character and power are gained. Very
good/excellent 92/100
Kracher Grande Cuvée TBA No 7 Nouvelle Vague 2002
(A blend of Chardonnay and Welchriesling, with 252 .7 g/l residual
sugar.) Complex, intense nose is sweet and apricotty with some lemony
fruit and a bit of spice. Broad and full. Very powerful, complex rich
palate with the new oak (spice and vanilla) balancing the fat
apricotty fruit. Intensely sweet but in balance. Kracher says he is
aiming at harmony: ‘If you look for power you lose finesse; if you
look for finesse you lose power’. Excellent 96/100
Kracher Welchriesling TBA No 8 Zwischen den Seen
2002
(268.5 g/l residual sugar)
Distinctive, beguiling nose of crystalline fruits together with
herbiness and dark thick-cut marmalade. The palate is open and very
sweet with a fantastic concentration of herb and spice tinged
marmalade and tropical fruits. Seamless and smooth. Excellent 95/100
Kracher Chardonnay TBA No 9 Nouvelle Vague 2002
(295.9 g/l residual sugar)
Ripe, intense tropical fruit nose showing hints of vanilla, spice and
fudge. Concentrated and intense. The palate is viscous, full and fat
with lots of sweetness. Taut complex youthful fruit flavours combine
with honeyed richness. The acidity is masked by the huge, fat sweet
character. Very good/excellent 94/100
Kracher Scheurebe TBA No 10 Zwischen den Seen 2002
(311 g/l residual sugar)
Very forward, distinctive sweet herbal fruitiness on the nose, which
is sweet, honeyed and alluring, showing some apricotty botrytis. The
palate is explosively rich with fat, viscous, supersweet fruit, notes
of spice and vanilla and a lovely botrytis character. Feels intensely
sweet: powerful but balanced. Excellent 96/100
Kracher Welschriesling TBA No 11 Nouvelle Vague 2002
(403 g/l residual sugar)
Dense, tight supersweet nose with some varietal character and brooding
complex honey, vanilla and spice notes. Explosively rich palate is
hugely sweet and viscous but has some lovely spicy complexity. Very
intense and powerful with fantastic complexity and balance. Excellent
97/100
Kracher Noble Wine No 12 Zwischen den Seen 2002
(A blend of Scheurebe and Welschriesling, 430 g/l residual sugar,
4% alcohol)
This is excessive. For the first time Alois has had some casks with
this sort of abnormally high residual sugar but which also show
finesse, so he has bottled it rather than use it as a blending
component. Because it is under 5% alcohol it falls outside the
regulations and is therefore labelled a noble wine rather than a TBA.
The figures aren’t that accurate – it’s actually around 2–4%
alcohol (hard to measure in this context) and 500 g/litre residual
sugar. Fantastic complex nose of sweet candied fruit with great depth:
it’s hard to describe. Hints of lifted acid. The intense, almost
solid viscous palate has a huge weight of sweetness with complex
marmalade and apricot flavours. The 11 g/litre acidity (huge) is
needed to keep a semblance of balance. Excellent 97/100
Other wines
Kracher 2003 Beerenauslese Cuvée
Ripe, sweet open nose shows apricots and lemon. The palate has a
rich texture and nice balance. A delicious rounded win: not a
blockbuster, but nice. Very good+ 89/100
Kracher 2003 Muskat Ottonel
Herby, sweet candied fruit dominate here. On the palate there’s
a lovely sweet viscous character: not terribly complex but sweet, ripe
and delicious. Very good+ 89/100
Kracher Pinot Gris 2003 Illmitz
This dry white has a nice lemony freshness to the nose, but the
palate is quite rich textured with typical fat spicy Pinot Gris
flavours. A nice balanced dry white. Very good+ 88/100
Kracher Blend 1 2002
This red wine is a Zweigelt with a hint of Blaufrankisch. Dark,
rich, intense and spicy with good balance and nice spicy tannins. Very
modern but classy with fine grained savoury tannic structure. Normally
around 2500 bottles produced each year. Very good+ 89/100
Availability
in the UK: Noel Young Wines
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