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Blog

Articles about 'Juris'

Invite Austria to your Thanksgiving table

Posted 11 18 2011 by catherine    0 Comments
 

Finding the perfect wine that can go with all the rich flavors found on the Thanksgiving menu, the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, the cranberries, and the various side dishes, can be challenging. Nonetheless, I think that a wine that is bright and fruity, and not too tannic nor alcoholic, is always a great choice. So when I recently tasted the 2009 Juris St. Laurent Selection, I thought that this year, it was time to invite Austria to our Thanksgiving table.

    Owned by the Stiegelmar family, Juris farms 17 hectares of vineyards in the Neusiedlersee wine region, half way between Vienna and Budapest. This is the warmest part of Austria with climatic conditions well suited to red varieties, which explains the winery's special focus on St Laurent and Pinot Noir wines.

    The Stiegelmar family has been cultivating grapes in this area since the 16th century. One of the winery's underground cellars was built in 1756, Mozart's birth year. It was dug 52 meters long, 12 meters below the surface, and maintains a stable temperature of 10°C (50°F).

    
The underground cellars.

    But over the past 10 years, Axel Stiegelmar and his father Georg have developed a modern winery. The transport of grapes, mash, must, and wine is done predominantly through gravity to avoid damage by careless transport. The storage building is Austria's first passive energy wine storage facility. The building, neither heated nor cooled by fossil or electric energy, has various temperature and humidity zones to provide optimal storage conditions for different wines at different stages of their production.

    St. Laurent is a red grape of mysterious origins. It is said to belong to the Pinot family, although its exact ancestry remains unclear. It is an early ripening grape variety, sensitive to frost, sunburn, and botrytis. The name comes from Saint Laurent's name day on August 10, which is when the veraison of the grape occurs.

    If the wine had the bright acidity of a Pinot Noir, it was spicy like a Syrah. It showed a very dark color with aromas of black cherries, moka, and gamey notes. On the palate, it was quite smooth and tasty with maybe a hint of sweet chestnut on the finish.

    

Tags: austria    juris    st. laurent   

 

Whirlwind Tour of Juris Winery

Posted 08 23 2009 by Stetson    0 Comments
 

Juris Vineyard's Grapevines & Soil

The Juris Winery Tour

A visit to this winery started with a tour of the vineyards. Axel Stiegelmar of Weingut Juris, took us on a whirlwind tour of his vineyards. We had the pleasure of sampling his Pinot Noir and St. Laurent grape varietals. It was great to taste the grapes off the vine and you can really taste the difference between the two varietals before they become wine.

Juris Vineyard Soil

The Juris Vineyard is located on a raised plateau of pebbles and loam. This dry farmed vineyard produces small amounts of flavor packed grapes. Also, they utilize cover crop and no herbicides in any of their vineyards. If weeds become excessive, they plow to eliminate them and then spread straw down the rows and under the vines to prevent water loss from the constant drying winds.

Notice the double stalked vines in the photo above? This is their clever way of increasing plant density in the vineyard while keeping it easy to farm. The double stalked vines are actually two plants right next to each other. This method was first implemented by Axel's father, Georg Steigelmar, who continues to influence Axel.

After tasting the wines of Juris, it is clear that their goal is to produce wines that are regional, varietally correct, vintage specific and widely appealing. Some of Juris' wines can be consumed upon release and some should age. Their wines will reward both the eager and the patient in their own way.

Wines of Juris

Select Wine Tasting Notes from the Visit to Weingut Juris:

2007 Juris Villa Syrah Barrel Sample, Lake Balaton Region, Hungary: The grapes are grown by Axel's father in Hungary. Axel handles the wine making at Juris in Austria. It is a dark Northern Rhone in style wine with aromas and flavors of luscious black fruit, pepper, fennel and eucalyptus. From the barrel, it had a lean mouth feel with angular structure. I can't wait to taste the finished wine. It's quite distinctive.

2007 Zweigelt Selection: Fresh, fruity, earthy, clean and complex with nice tannin structure. There were flavors and aromas of black cherry, forest floor and dried leaves.

2007 Pinot Noir and St. Laurent Selection: I have tasted St. Laurent and of course Pinot Noir before, but tasting them in Austria was a completely different experience. These wines are built to age.

2006 Pinot Noir Reserve: This wine has been nominated for top red wine in "Salon Guide". This stands out as one of my favorites. It's really stylish, young but profound. The flavors and aromas that stood out were sweet spice (cloves), and oak.

2006 St. Laurent Reserve: This was the top wine for me. It's balanced and exotic. I can't wait to see this available in the US.

Both of the 2006 Reserves were off the charts good and very special wines.

--Stetson

Tags:     austria    austrian wine    gols    juris    pinot noir    stetson kristyn wine tour    st laurent    wine travel   

 

Touchdown in Austria!

Posted 08 21 2009 by Stetson    0 Comments
 

Axel Stieglmar, Weingut Juris, measuring the ripeness of the grapes (brix) with a refractometer

Axel Stiegelmar of Weingut Juris promptly greeted us at the airport and whisked us away to his vineyards in Gols, near Lake Neusiedlersee in Burgenland Austria. Literally, our first stop was this vineyard. Here he checks the sugar on his St. Laurent with refractometer. Everything is looking pretty good for the 2009 vintage!

Barrel Tasting

After getting a great tour of his expanding vineyard holdings we explored the winery, did a bit of barrel and new release tasting, and then had an amazing lunch at Restaurant Alain Weissgerberg. It was a genuine pleasure to share this afternoon at such a fabulous restaurant with Axel and his wife Herta. They truly love food, wine, and the sharing of both. Axel even opened a bottle of Tricata, his Amarone style Blaufränkisch. It's an unusual approach to an unusual grape but one that surprisingly works. This wine flaunted its incredible range as it opened up. Come the holidays, this would be an absolute show stopper of a wine!

--Stetson and Kristyn

Tags: austria    gols    juris    stetson kristyn wine tour    st laurent    wine travel