The official announcement of the final winners of the Burgenland Wine Competition was held at a big gala in the grand Haydn-Hall of the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt last weekend. We did attend as we were nominated with a wine that is indeed a bit special for the Burgenland.
At the Gala the best wines of the finals of the grand Burgenland Wine competition are awarded the "Landessieger" (State Winner) title. Since there are many very good wines of many different styles in the Burgenland region, there are mutliple categories where the title can be claimed. Reds, whites, sweets and even common grape varieties have their own competition among each other to make it easier for the tasters to decide which one is best.
But now to our story. Attending the gala is of course always fun, but even better is to come with a wine that has been nominated for an award. Our Riesling 2011 was given 93.12 points(!!) at the big competition and with that we entered the finals next to two Grüner Veltliner and two Sauvignon Blanc wines in the category "Sortenvielfalt" (mixed varieties). This category is prepared for grape varieties that are not as widespread in the Burgenland and thus do not get their own separate tasting. It is of course always difficult to directly compare wines made from different grapes and tough it was very exciting at the gala, our Riesling was bested by one of the Saugnon Blanc wines which was of course very good as well. Still, being the only Riesling nominated for the finals this year is a big achivement in itself and our Riesling may be the best of the Burgenland in the 2011 vintage. Why not have a taste for yourself?