HERE are some bamboozlers for your next trivia night - blaufrankisch, zweigelt and gruner veltliner.
Given this is a wine column, many of you will guess they are grape varieties of Germanic origins and have encountered some of the increasing numbers of gruner veltliner whites coming on our bottle-shop shelves.
I developed a great liking for gruner during a 2019 trip through Hungary, Austria and Germany and enjoyed a few blaufrankisch and zweigelt reds.
Last week I've renewed my acquaintance with all three varieties thanks to the Mount Bera family wine brand of South Australia's Adelaide Hills Region. The $30 Mount Bera 2019 Amphitheatre Zweigelt-Pinot Noir and 2018 Amphitheatre Shiraz-Blaufrankisch and $25 2018 Gruvee Guner Veltliner are reviewed below.
Mount Bera is run by aerospace engineer, Australian Navy commander and legal software company managing director turned vigneron Greg Horner and his wife Katrina along with their daughters Lily, Maya and Kali, and son Luka.
The Horners have owned Mount Bera, with its 55 hectares of prime grazing land, 14.8 hectares of mature winegrape vines and 1880s homestead, since 2008.
The property was first settled in 1851 by the English Hannaford family who named it after a much-loved place in Devonshire and in the Adelaide Hills planted successful orchards and beautiful gardens of cork, chestnut, walnut, olive, oak, cypress, pine and bay trees.
The first Mount Bera vineyards were established in 1997 by Louise Warner and her partner Peter Hall and they sold their fruit to Penfolds.
Greg and Katrina switched to own-label production in 2009 and today they have pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, temparillo, shiraz, gruner veltliner, zweigelt and blaufrankisch vines.
Zweigelt, a blaufrankisch-saint laurent crossbreed developed in 1922 by Klosterneuberg scientist Dr Fritz Zweigelt and now Austria's most popular red grape, came to Mount Bera after being recommended to Greg by a German friend.
Greg and Katrina were both raised on farms. Greg went from school at Victoria's Wonthaggi High to a Bachelor of Engineering Aerospace to seven years in the Royal Australian Navy, exiting with the rank of commander in 1990 to work in aerospace engineering in the UK and Holland. Returning to Australia in 1996, he took up his present post as managing director of a legal software company, adding ownership of Mount Bera in 2008.
To order go online to mtberavineyards.com.au.
JOHN LEWIS WINE REVIEWS
ZWEIGELT WITH ZING
AT THE Torrens Valley Rd, Gumeracha, cellar door, mtberavineyards.com.au/shop/ and singlevineyards.com, the Mount Bera 2019 Amphitheatre Zweigelt-Pinot Noir has ruby hues, 13% alcohol, scents of violets and zingy raspberry front-palate flavour. The middle displays blueberry, briar, spice and coconutty oak and a finish of dusty tannins. PRICE: $30. DRINK WITH: coq au vin. AGEING: five years. RATING: 4.5 STARS
GROOVY GRUNER
THE Bera gruner and blaufrankisch vines were inspired by Larry Jacobs and Marc Dobson's Hahndorf Hill wines and thisfrisky Mount Bera 2018 Gruvee Gruner Veltliner shows how good a move it was. It is pale straw, musk-scented and ruby grapefruit front-palate flavoured. The middle has passionfruit, apple and flint and a finish of steely acid. PRICE: $25. DRINK WITH: tapas. AGEING: six years. RATING: 4.5 STARS
BLAUFRANKISCH MIX
THIS Mount Bera 2018 Amphitheatre Shiraz-Blaufrankisch blend registers only 12.5% alcohol but is deep purple, fruitcake-scented and features intense blackberry flavour on the front palate. Maraschino cherry, rhubarb, peppermint and savoury oak integrate on the middle palate and ferric tannins play at the finish. PRICE: $30. DRINK WITH: loin of lamb with beetroot relish. AGEING: seven years. RATING: 4 STARS
