It is winter, it is blooming cold and sometimes you just need a red wine to make everything okay. Enter the Austrians and their medium-bodied red grape varieties like Zweigelt and Blaufrankisch. The best thing about these two grapes (apart from the fact that you sound like you can speak German when saying it phonetically) is that they marry perfectly together, which is what brings us to Pitti – a wine made from a blend of those two grapes from the winery Pittnauer.
This style of wine is for fans of light to medium-bodied red wines and those that would not shy away from a glass of French Beaujolais or even Italian Dolcetto. The Pitti has more fruit substance than those two, but it sure as hell has the same juiciness and a fruity note that you get with some carbonic maceration. Fruit-wise we are looking at things like blood plums, pomegranates, blood oranges with a slight hint of iodine and violet.
I have enjoyed all the Austrian red wines I have come across thus far. Not only do they appease a blistering cold winters night, they also go with a wide range of dishes due to the decent fruit body but lack of overbearing tannins. They also put me in a great state of mind where I’ll dream of hiking in the Alps, sing songs from The Sound of Music and reenact Arnold Schwarzenegger…all in the same evening. Oh dear…
PittnauerPrince Wine Store, South Melbourne
RRP: $23.00