Old Vine Blaufränkisch - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Wine of the Week

Old Vine Blaufränkisch

by Joshua Greene • March 27, 2023

Hannes Schuster (left) and Roland Velich in the Jagini vineyard. (Photo courtesy of Winemonger)

Hannes Schuster’s father and grandfather had a small vine nursery in Zagersdorf, a town southwest of Lake Neusiedl; the microclimate there is relatively cool, as are the heavy clay soils over limestone and sand. He and Roland Velich of Moric started this project to focus on old vines in Zagersdorf, this 2011 coming from a parcel planted in 1911, as well as others planted from the 1940s through the early ’70s. They held this 2011 back, as they were excited by the quality of the fruit in that vintage, but faced with a structure and volume of tannins so great that the wine shut down at bottling. Today, its cherry-skin and Kalamata-olive depths feel heady and complete, showing development but retaining stamina to continue to age. Crystl Horton of Angel’s Share Wines would choose to enjoy it right now, with a pasta alla puttanesca.

94

Jagini 2011 Burgenland Zagersdorf Blaufränkisch

$55

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Joshua Greene

Joshua Greene is the editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine.

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TAGS Austria Blaufränkisch Wine of the Week

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

Corey Warren
Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

Tara Q. Thomas
Editor at Large

Since Tara Q. Thomas joined Wine & Spirits in 1997, she’s traveled the wine world from Argentina to Australia. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with more than 20 years of experience in the food and wine world, Tara puts her culinary knowledge to use as W&S’s resident food critic, and is the critic for the wines of Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, Argentina, and the Mediterranean. She’s particularly enthusiastic about the wines of Greece, where she once lived and cooked. Outside of W&S, Tara has authored two books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine Basics and The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine; contributed to the Oxford Companion to Cheese as well as Oxford’s forthcoming volume on spirits; and writes a wine column for Culture: The Word on Cheese.

Patrick J. Comiskey
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A former sommelier, Patrick J. Comiskey serves as the W&S critic for all domestic wines outside of California—including New York, Oregon and Washington—and contributes articles on the wines and viticulture of these areas. His wine travels include regular visits to US wine regions, as well as trips to France, Italy, Germany and Australia. Comiskey’s writing credentials include contributions to the San Francisco Chronicle’s wine section, the Los Angeles Times, Bon Appétit and the Robb Report, and also teaches classes and moderates panels on viticulture, wine tasting and various wine regions. His recent book, American Rhône: How Maverick Winemakers Changed the Way Americans Drink (UC Press 2017), was shortlisted for the 2016 André Simon Food & Drink Book Award and 2017 Louis Roederer Domaine Faiveley Wine Book of the Year.

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As a retail buyer, Susannah traveled abroad extensively, especially in Italy and Greece, to learn the stories behind her favorite wines and then connect others with the vines and the humans that make them. She is excited to join W&S, since that is the magazine’s mission. Raised to be curious, she finds, after over 20 years in the world of food and wine, that she loves best how wine touches so many disciplines—history, language, geology, cuisine, biology, horticulture—keeping the quest for knowledge fresh every day.

Joshua Greene
Publisher & Editor

Editor and Publisher of Wine & Spirits since 1986, Joshua Greene began drinking wine with meals during a summer in Galicia, Spain, at the age of 13. In later years, he worked in wine shops in western Massachusetts and served as wine captain at Wheatleigh, a small inn in Lenox. After graduating from Princeton University in 1981, Greene pursued a career in magazines, focusing on the management of special-interest publications. His work with Wine & Spirits began on a consulting basis, eventually leading to his purchase of the magazine in 1989.

Greene has traveled extensively in the wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and all the major wine regions of the United States. In addition to his duties as editor and publisher, Greene serves as the critic for Napa Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Rioja, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He also writes feature stories and commentary for each issue of the magazine.

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Patricio Tapia
Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.