wein.plus launches new series of comprehensive tasting specials

"Blaufränkisch - Austria's red soul" is the first special with all top wines - and everything that wine fans are interested in about the wines and their growing regions.

The European wine platform wein.plus is now expanding its tasting work with comprehensive specials. The editorial team complements the reviews of the best wines of a region with comprehensive information on terroir, cultivation and ageing, the best culinary tips, the most interesting personalities and the most beautiful travel destinations. The series, which is published about six times a year and focuses on particularly interesting European wine-growing regions, starts with a large special on the grape variety Blaufränkisch from Burgenland and Carnuntum.

For the special, tasting directors Marcus Hofschuster and Kim Schreiber evaluated well over 200 of the best Blaufränkisch wines from both growing regions. In the independent blind tasting according to very strict criteria, almost half of the wines scored 90 points or more. "That was quite impressive", Hofschuster is surprised by the quality. Kim Schreiber and he registered a clear development of the Blaufränkisch style: "Even though the very concentrated, alcohol-rich and wood-accentuated wines are still very successful, the trend here is also clearly going in the direction of delicacy and elegance," explains Marcus Hofschuster. "The top wines are deep, multi-layered and concentrated, yet without heaviness, without exaggerated alcohol, without forced use of wood - and thus clearly committed to their origin," he sums up.

"Mid-range wines offer an ingenious price-performance ratio"

The four winning wines even achieved scores of 95 and 96 points, which is world class. They are available from the winery for between 47 and 84 euros. "That's not a small price, but you have to look elsewhere for world-class wines at this price," emphasises Marcus Hofschuster. But wine lovers can also find the finest Blaufränkisch qualities at a significantly lower price, according to the tasting director: "In the middle class from 10 to about 25 euros, you can find single vineyards, which are astonishingly good. They offer an almost ingenious price-performance ratio."

But despite their high quality, the aromatics of these wines can be classified as far from mainstream: "First-class Blaufränkisch is not necessarily something for every wine lover," emphasises Marcus Hofschuster, "the wines need a lot of attention, time and experience to be able to understand them in their depth."

For Hofschuster, the "extremely different styles" of the four winning wines are particularly remarkable: He describes the 2016 Lutzmannsburg Blaufränkisch Reserve trocken Alte Reben by Moric (96 p.) as "incredibly fine, deep, complex and elegant".

The 2019 Ried Mariental Blaufränkisch from Ernst Triebaumer (96 p.), on the other hand, he rates as "brazen, dark, gripping, tremendously impressive, for the long haul". Hofschuster's summary of this wine: "This is the Léoville-Las-Cases of Austria.

" His impression of the 2015 Ried Reihburg Blaufränkisch trocken "r2" from the Schiefer pur winery (96 P.) is completely different: "For all its concentration, more hedonistic and open-hearted than the Mariental, immensely juicy and very complex."

The 2019 "Perwolff" from Krutzler (95 P. )once again shows new facets: "Brilliant, pure-toned, polished, cool, precise and almost dancing." To capture a comprehensive picture of the quality of these wines, the vintages tasted ranged from 2020 back to 2000.