ZWEIGELT: AUSTRIA

+RUN AWAY NOW!+
Neckenmart Zweigelt (by Winzerkeller Neckenmarkt)
Austria: Burgenland (eastern Austria, south of Vienna)
Zweigelt (red)
2008
77 pts
$11.99
BRUTAL. Absolutely brutal. A big fan of Austrian wines, especially the dry white Gruner Veltliner (lovely minerals and rocks), and I've been anxious to explore Zweigelt, a varietal that dates only to 1922, but an Austrian red many experts say has a lot to offer if it can overcome some obvious marketing hurdles, i.e. a name that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue in English and the fact that it's an unknown varietal to most. The Neckenmart Zweigelt is one of three featured wines in D.O.C. Wine Bar's Old World Red Flight (a good buy at $15.00). But while this flight also includes the delightful Domaine de Fontsainte Corbieres (click HERE for my rating), the Neckenmart may just be the worst wine I've had in the past year. The fact that the weight is water-thin is about the best thing that can be said of this wine. The nose is ALL barnyard...not even earthy, really (I generally like earthiness) but an overpowering, offensive stench of dung. There are wines with this element that I actually enjoy, but those wines give one the sense that the manure is complementary as you enjoy the fruit and minerals in your glass...perhaps standing in a green field with your glass in hand as the barnyard aroma drifts faintly by, adding to the richness, the authenticity of the experience. But with this wine, you are standing in the same field buried up to your neck in cow manure, drinking a glass of watery cherry Kool Aid... with pieces of dung floating in it. One almost has to choke it down. Not only are the aroma and flavor distasteful, the two elements of the taste profile--cherries and dung--are completely disjointed, unrelated...except in that they both offend. Based on what I've heard and read, the Neckenmart cannot be a good example of what Zweigelt has to offer. Run away from this wine--fast--but more to come in future posts on this varietal. Grüß Gott!