Quartus Riesling

We got a very late start today due to hours and hours of Zoom, everyone's favorite hindrance in 2021 to enjoying our travels around the world to explore the world of wine. So, we're going to have to hop on our supersonic jet with a special smaller plane eject system to get us to Pannonhalma. 

For those not familiar, Pannonhalma is both a town and a wine region in western Hungary. Located about as far to the south by southeast of Bratislava as it is to the west of Budapest, Pannonhalma has, at least to most people, far more historical significance than it does wine significance. But, from a wine standpoint, this is a somewhat unique area. We'll come back to that later.

Starting with the somewhat morbid, we can visit the Pannonholma Archabbey where we can find the heart, but not the head or body of Archduke Hapsburg, the last crown prince of Austria Hungary before its dissolutions with the end of World War I. The Archabbey and the accompanying Benedictine school sit high on a hill overlooking the town as they have for more than 1000 years.

The climate here is somewhat cool, perhaps the coolest in all of the Hungarian wine regions. As a result, the region is perhaps somewhat limited in the grapes it can grow. But, today, we are exploring one of the local favorites and one that can't be found in many other places. Known locally as Quartus Riesling or Quartusriszling or Rajnairizling and more broadly as Rhine Riesling.

It's a somewhat flexible grape and locally, they use it to make dry, sweet, and sparkling wines. For the sparkling, they harvest particularly early and for the sweet, particularly late. Today, we are tasting the dry version which is harvested most years in late September.

The typical method in which these wines are made is to cold ferment on lees (dead yeast cells) in stainless steel tanks. While this sounds unappealing, it has significant merit with acidic wines of this sort to make them more accessible for wine drinkers. What we get from this is a far richer, some might say creamier mouthfeel and bit of a soft toasty flavor. 

This is a wonderful pairing with cool water seafood and despite not having the particularly acidy feel pairs really well with spicy southeast Asian food.

The wines of this type are quite food friendly and quite inexpensive, so if you can find them, enjoy.



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