New Austro-Hungarian Empire: Vineyards

For the past decade, wines from the "New World" (basically everywhere outside Europe) have burst onto the imbibing scene and established a firm foothold.

Turns out, though, that the Old World wasn't quite done throwing new and/or improved wines at us. Two central European nations better known for forming a 19th-century "empire" -- Austria and Hungary -- are emerging as major players in the wine world.

For centuries, basically until the 21st one began, the superb Hungarian dessert wine tokaji aszú (to-KAY ah-SOO) was the only serious offering from either nation. A few years ago, bright, fresh grüner veltliners from Austria started gaining favor on these shores, along with a few cool, crisp rieslings ("speaking with a dialect I'd never heard from riesling before," said the ever-loquacious importer Terry Theise).

The Austrian reds, on the other hand, struggled as vintners tried to emulate the ultra-ripe, oak-laden profiles so popular elsewhere.

"When we started with Austrian wines six or seven years ago, it seemed like a courageous, maybe foolish thing to do," said Rob Rudolph, owner of local distributor New France Wines. "Those first wines were kind of a tough sell. Now they've gotten more focused."

What happened, Rudolph said, is pretty simple: The growers started collaborating, tasting together and forming a support network. Just as important, Theise noted, is that the Austrians started to trust their product -- the three main red grapes are blaufränkisch, St. Laurent and a hybrid of the two called zweigelt -- rather than pander to prevailing winemaking trends.

"They now seem to recognize the beauty that they inherently have with these three grape varieties," said Theise, "which are capable of producing elegant, modest, food-friendly, fruit-driven wines that have all the complexity they need."

Thirsty for Hungary? South Lyndale and Solo Vino are among your better destinations, and you'll probably be surprised by what you find. "As money and technology and know-how goes into the former Soviet bloc of countries," said Theise, "they're discovering that they've got the soils and climates to make quite good wine."

Being part of that bloc was a setback for Hungary's winemakers, said Paul Daggett of the Wine Company, which brings in tasty wines from Szepsy, Konyari, Szeremley and Dogobo. "The Russians used Hungary as a breadbasket of wine," said Daggett. "They moved cultivation from the hillsides to flatlands and emphasized yields above all else. The wine was slated to be cheap and shipped back to mother Russia."

To add insult to injury, on the formerly fertile hillsides, some of which had been planted by the Romans back in the day, the Soviets built summer homes for party leaders, Daggett said.

Hungary's tokaji aszú remains perhaps the world's finest dessert wine, and it's priced accordingly, but the Hungarians are producing many fine wines from some of the same grapes as Austria: riesling, Saint Laurent and kékfrankos (same as blaufränkisch).

Thankfully, the wines are easier to drink than they are to pronounce.