Thursday, 23rd January 2025
Members: £62
Guests: £67
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Austria is a difficult country to describe, with a checkered history, no doubt in part due to being crowded in by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland Liechtenstein and Germany. It is physically a third the size of the UK and its western two thirds is almost entirely alpine, so all wine production is in the east where the mountains descend to great Pannonia Plain, cold meets warm and the capital Vienna houses more than a fifth of the country’s population. The birthplace of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Red Bull, wine has been made in Austria since the Romans and then Cistercian monks. In the Middle Ages, Vienna was so notorious for the copious production and consumption of wine that the Romans called it Vindobona. In the mid 20th Century Austria was the third largest producer of wine in the world: its biggest market was West Germany, where it effectively made cheaper copies of the semi sweet German wines so popular back then. Greed got the better of a few producers, who in poorer vintages started adding diethylene glycol (a toxic anti-freeze ingredient) to increase sweetness and body and blended it with bulk German wine. When this scandal was exposed the Austrian wine market was all but destroyed: from 45m litres in 1985 exports fell to 4.4m litres in 1986. It took till 2001 to restore these levels. But with hindsight this was the best thing to happen to the Austrian wine business: it established the most stringent controls and focussed on quality, not quantity. Their wines now are the best they have ever been. White grapes make up 60% of their wines, with Gruner Veltliner by the far the largest at 32%. Riesling is only 4%, but highly prized. Zweigelt, a cherry fruited medium bodied red accounts for 14% of all grapes, though Blaufränkisch, at half that, holds more potential for fuller, long-aged black fruited wine. In addition there is Pinot Noir known as Blauburgunder and Sankt Laurent a plusher Pinot Noir lookalike, some excellent Sauvignon Blanc; and outstanding sweet wines from the Neusiedlersee. The intention as ever is to try wines that give a true representation of the country as a whole, and as I will be in Austria tasting this week, the line-up below may change slightly.
As usual the venue will be revealed to those who have purchased a ticket. But as many of you know it is very close to Green Park.
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About your host
Richard Pearey DipWSET, Chairman of the Society, has been passionate about wine from an embarrassingly early age. He began creating a cellar in 1984 and despite (or perhaps because of) a long career in advertising, film and sports marketing, then men’s luxury shirts, has been drinking steadily ever since. His addiction to the grape has led many of his friends to hand over their wine cellars to his care. He has organised and hosted wine evenings as corporate or staff entertainment for city firms, marketing agencies and private clients, from 8 to 200 people. He has run a wine course for friends, his own wine club – Who Nose – since 1985 and his old school dining society, the oldest in the world, for 23 years. He co-founded a wine event company, We Don’t Spit, in 2013 and learned to spit, at which point he began his official wine qualifications. He completed his Diploma in lockdown and now works at Hedonism Wine in Mayfair, probably the best wine shop on the planet, whilst pursuing his ultimate dream of becoming a Master of Wine, of which there are still only 425 in the world. Part of this 3-5 year course involves blind tasting 48 wines from anywhere in the world. So he is hoping tasting with Society Members will help!
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Cambridge Society of London Transfer and Refund Policy
i) At least 14 calendar days before the event: We will provide full refunds (minus any booking/transaction fees, which are nonrefundable). Alternatively, if you have found a suitable replacement, we can change the name on the ticket on the understanding that you will reclaim the ticket price from them separately.
ii) Between 4 and 14 calendar days before the event: Our arrangements with our hosts are always finalised 4 calendar days before each event. With more than 4 calendar days’ notice we can still change the name to someone named by you on the understanding that you will reclaim the ticket price from them separately. Alternatively, we MIGHT be able to sell it to someone else; there is no guarantee of that but we will do our best and then refund you if successful.
iii) Less than 4 calendar days: We regret that we cannot offer refunds if given less than 4 calendar days’ notice