Fine Spirits Tasting by the Fine Spirits Panel Upper Austria 2014

SDeurope

On 22nd October the Fine Spirits Tasting organized by the Fine Spirits Panel Upper Austria took place in the casino in Linz, where some of the best distillers of Upper Austria presented their extraordinary products, and this is our report on what you have missed if you were not there. :)

Malznerhof - Family Hochmair

We had the pleasure to chat with master distiller Josef Hochmair and his son Markus. They own a farm, which is known to exist since before the year 1050! In those times it was something like a tollbooth for a roman street. Since more than 300 years, the farm is in the hands of this family and they are producing certified organic now. Josef told us about his work, how he produces even exotic things like rice spirits since he has friends in Thailand, and that he also teaches distilling in his distillery. We really got a feeling, how passionate he is with his profession, it was a pure pleasure hearing his stories. He is really blessed, that his son will take on the tradition. We tasted a traditional pear spirit, a very fruity but elegant apricot spirit and an exceptional single malt whiskey, that had many layers in the taste, from smoky to roasting aromas to a hint of vanilla, a very intense and full mouth feeling which gave away, that there was more than one barrel involved in the producing act. And Markus revealed, that his father likes to skip barrels to give the whiskey the final touch. We were truly impressed and we will visit the master on his estate for sure - one has to find out all about this place and the wonderful spirits they make (and we have to taste that rice spirit!).

Wurm&Wurm Distillery

This small distillery was presented by Irene Wurm and her father Franz. She recently took over the family business from her parents. They have a farm in the vicinity of Linz and produce spirits and also Most, which usually is apple or pear juice with alcohol, that could be best described as cider. The spirits we tasted were Williams pear and apricot, also quince. Interestingly they presented their bottles on apricot stones, which looked creative - and the spirits were not only well presented, they all tasted fine and showed the great skill of family Wurm.

Woehrer Garagenbrenner

Mr. Woehrer has already won many awards, like "Distillery of the Year" in 2008 & 2013, the "Falstaff Spirits Trophy 2012", of course lots of gold medals at "Destillata" and more. Interestingly he started his distillery in a garage (that's where the name is coming from) and is distilling for more than 40 years now. He is a true master of his art and was working as a professional taster in international juries.

We tasted his apricot spirit, apricots are really tricky, they tend to rot quickly and it is a critical point to find the right ripeness for mashing. Too ripe, the spirit tastes like overcooked apricot jam, not enough ripeness, you hardly find any flavor in the product. Mr. Woehrer presented a very flowery and fruity product, that opened well into the nose but gave lots of flavor in the mouth too. We also tasted a strawberry spirit, which was not like you would eat strawberry ice cream, but had a very delicate fruity flavor with that certain unexpected twist of the strawberry pits. It had really character, was very round and easy to drink. A real treat!

Schosser Distillery

A farm owned by family Schosser since the 17th century and operated certified organic since 1996. They grow fruits like cherries, pears, plum and blueberries. Of course all the spirits show the range of their fruit gardens, too. We tasted a yummy red Williams pear and Morello cherry, which of course was mashed with the stones and showed a lot of pit character in the spirit. We also admired the very beautiful bottles, that really had a sophisticated touch with the silver on it, Mr. Schosser was quite astonished, as I asked about the price of them, but I think you distillers would be interested in knowing, that he buys them for 2 EUR the piece. But they are worth the money, customers immediately recognize the brand.

Landgasthof Dieplinger - Family Langmayr

Another family with a long tradition in distilling. They have a guest house and restaurant near the river Danube where you could eat Danube fish, drink Most, go fishing and have some real pretty views on the river and landscape.

We tasted some old pear variety that was called Dornbirn which was very ripe and broad in taste, it represents a traditional style of distilling, where the distiller tries to get the most taste out of the back end of the hearts, but in a pleasant way.

A very delicate medlar spirit

and some banana.

Well, they know how to make a good banana spirit, and for those, who had trouble with mashing banana: They don't use the peel! It tasted fruity and fragile, but you would not think in an instant, that you were tasting bananas. It smelled more like sweet, aromatic perfume. Very interesting.

SDeurope

Distillery Parzmair

This family produces award winning spirits made of the fruits of their farms in Schwanenstadt and Saalbach. They have a long tradition in doing so, and this is what you could taste in their products, skill and creativity shows in every sip of their spirits. They also make a product that is called Mei Dschin, Austrian slang for my gin. The gin presents itself not so much on the juniper side, it comes more flowery and fruity, lemon grass, lavender (which is very difficult to chime in, it easily tends to taste like shampoo or horse washing water, if you don't know, what you are doing), pepper and some other ingredients, that the master did not want to reveal - top secret. We tasted the gin pure, with ice and tonic water, but to be frank, I would not have needed all of this, the pure version was the best.

Reisetbauer Qualitätsbrand

If there is one distiller, that won all the awards and really is something like a celebrity in the scene, it is Mr. Hans Reisetbauer. He opened the gate for modern distilling in Austria, he was the first that dared to put an adequate price to his products, that until his appearance had traditional to be cheap. Unfortunately the master was not present at this tasting, we really would have liked to chat with him, but his very fine single malt whiskey was rewarding us enough. It appeared with a hint of hazelnut, bread and smoke, light roasting aromas and of course very smooth. I used a different tasting glass for this whiskey though, the small glasses, that the employee displayed did not well for this exceptional product.

---

And this concludes a very nice event on a Wednesday evening. We hope you liked our little picture story. Of course almost all the booze has been spitted out, like a professional taster would do, what a tragedy for such fine distillates, but it's likely this report would have looked differently otherwise. ;)

Sunshine

For those, who have not noticed: the names of the distilleries hide the links to their websites...

Smaug

Nice write up.