I´m finally in St. Anton, a ski paradise in Austria. We had great weather yesterday as you can see from the color of the sky in this picture. New Year´s Eve in ski towns all over Europe are generally the same, fireworks everywhere, much revelry and prix fixe dinners.
I went to the Hotel Montana for dinner to celebrate and had an eight course meal which I must say was delicious. I had expected the food here to be basic fare but instead have had one great meal after another much to my surprise.
I also have been able to taste some great wines including the Weninger Blaufranckish that I mentioned on my last blog post.
Last night I tried some great Zweigelt and amazing riesling from Martin Donabaum from the Wachau. I had both the Federspiel and the Smaragd. They were both great but the Smaragd was beyond lovely with beautiful peach and apricot notes, perfume and floral notes, great acidity and minerality.
Austrian riesling tends to be a bit drier than German riesling with a tad less acidity. I find them very elegant and lovely as well as being food friendly with a variety of cuisines. Everytime I have a riesling I wonder whz I don’t drink them more often. That’s a good resolution for this New Year. Drink more riesling. I am off to a good start.
avvinare.com 
I do not agree with your statement that Austrian Rieslings tend to be dryer than German Rieslings. Austria and Germany produce dry and noble-sweet Rieslings that are very hard to distinguish. But Germany also produces fruity sweet Rieslings which Austria does not. http://www.schiller-wine.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-german-white-wines-capital-july.html#uds-search-results
Cheers.
Christian G.E.Schiller
Reblogged this on avvinare and commented:
It’s been five years since this trip to St. Anton, my ripped ACL and my last skiing experience. I didn’t grow up skiing but started at 15 with a friend’s family in Vermont. I loved to ski all through my teens, twenties and beyond. Then I started to get scared. I think that was around the time that snowboarding became everyone’s favorite sport. These days, with a very young child, I’m looking forward to getting back on the slopes. The small ones and starting over. This weekend’s blizzard has really made me miss ife on the slopes, all of it. I always remember the panini with speck and asiago cheese that I would eat when skiing in Italy and the desire to drink Vin Brule but the knowledge that too much of it would make me a worse skier. Hopefully, a settimana bianca will again be part of my life as Niccolo’ learns to ski and wants to go. It’s a great February tradition in Italy that I miss.
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