Niepoort’s Austrian table wines

[Rune EG]

Although this topic is strictly speaking outside of FTLOP’s normal scope, I thought it may be of interest for the readers of FTLOP.

In 2002 Dirk Niepoort established cooperation in Austria together with Dorli Muhr (now I understand his ex-wife) with the purpose of producing red wines and white wines. He introduced the port wine procedure of lagares, and people foot treading the grapes. Some of their wine producing neighbours have apparently copied this procedure.

There are four red wines and one white wine available here in Norway. We have tested them as follows:
- All the red wines were decanted for abt 1.5 hrs
- All the red wines were tasted both before eating, and as part of meat meals
- The white wine were tasted both before eating and together with seafood
Two of the red wines and the white wine have been tasted twice.
All prices listed are incl sales tax.

2007 Carnuntum Muhr-van der Niepoort (red)
Price incl tax in Europe abt €14.50 / $ 19.25 (Norway €23.50 / $ 31.50).
Grape Blaufränkisch. Medium red colour. Powerful aroma that could remind of Burgundy with an additional touch of something smoked and wood. Medium to full body. Elegant and quite smooth, but still a demanding wine. A lot of berries, long finish. A lot of wine in view of the price. 90 points

2007 Rote Erde Muhr-van der Niepoort (red)
Price incl tax in Europe abt €18.00 / $ 24.00 (Norway €30.00 / $ 40.00).
Grapes Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Relatively dark red colour. We struggled with this one, since there were limited aroma (although some deep berries) and could be it needed more time in the decanter. Medium body, relatively smooth, but on the dry side. Powerful, warm finish. 86 points.

2007 Syrah Muhr-van der Niepoort (red)
Price incl tax in Europe abt €21.50 / $ 28.50 (Norway €32.50 / $ 43.00).
Grape Syrah. Medium red colour. Aroma of leather, berries and a little floral. Medium body. First part of the taste was anonymous, but it came long as a dry and balanced wine with a touch of bitter. 83 points at the best.

2006 Spitzerberg Muhr-van der Niepoort (red)
Price incl tax in Europe abt €32.00 / $ 42.50 (Norway €40.00 / $ 53.00).
Grape Blaufränkisch. Relatively dark red colour. Also this wine has a powerful aroma that could remind of Burgundy and with addition of berries. Powerful, “sharp”, quite dry. Short finish. Very nice wine together with meat. 88 points.

2008 Prellenkirchen Muhr-van der Niepoort (white)
Price incl tax in Europe abt €14.00 / $ 18.50 (Norway €23.50 / $ 31.50).
Grape Grüner Veltliner. Light yellow-green colour. Fresh aroma of minerals. Medium to full body. Dry fruits on the taste. Medium finish. A nice white wine as part of a sea food meal, but not on it’s own on the terrace. 87 points.

Amongst the red wines, we ended up stating that the most expensive and the less costly are the best value-for-money, while the two middle price range red wines are not so interesting for us.

Rune EG

[Eric Ifune]

Thank you for the notes.
Do you know where in Austria the grapes were sourced?

[Rune EG]

All the five wines are produced in the Carnuntum area, which is located in eastern Austria, on the border to Slowakia. The two blaufränkisch wines (Carnuntum and Spitzerberg) are based on grapes produced locally in the Carnuntum area, and same goes for the white wine with Grüner Veltliner grapes.

However, when it comes to the two red wines based on Syrah and Merlot, I am not sure, as there are very small volumes of wine produced in Austria based on these two grapes.

Rune EG