2014 Rosi Schuster 'Reserve' Blaufränkisch / Sankt Laurent

Rosi Schuster

Austria / Burgenland / Rosi Schuster

2014 was the most difficult harvest Hannes Schuster has ever had to deal with. He had to do "an unbelievable selection" and lost a lot of grapes because of the rainy weather. However, the result is great: very straight, fine wines, pure and elegant.
This blend is 70% Blaufränkisch from Zagersdorf (loam and limestone) and 30% Sankt Laurent from Sankt Margarethen (sand and limestone). The Sankt Laurent underwent spontaneous whole-bunch fermentation in open wooden casks. The wine was aged in 500-litre barrels and, after 12 months, was blended into a bigger oak barrel. It was bottled after 21 months without fining and without filtration.

December, 2018

Stephan Reinhardt

Wine Advocate

90+ points.

The 2014 Reserve Blaufränkisch | Sankt Laurent (a 70-30 blend) is very spicy and peppery in its ripe and concentrated grated black fruit aromas. Silky and fresh on the lean but fleshy palate, the 2014 is more stringent and tannic than the floral and fresh 2016 or the smooth and charming 2015, but it shows good concentration and taut character.

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About Rosi Schuster

The winery was founded in 1979, the year that the parents of winemaker Hannes Schuster got married. The estate works with around 11 hectares of vines, the oldest of which are 60 years old. For a few years now Hannes and his mother Rosi have been focusing on Sankt Laurent, Blaufränkisch and Rotburger. They farm the vineyards organically and pursue small yields of exceptional fruit. Grapes from the younger vineyard are used for their expressions of Burgenland Blaufränkisch, Burgenland Sankt Laurent and Burgenland Rotburger. These three wines are their interpretation of a classically styled regional wine.
Musts are fermented gently in wooden or stainless steel open-top fermenters. Both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are spontaneous. The soils are quite diverse because the Schusters work in various villages in the surrounding areas. In the main these are sandy, loamy soils, limestone soils and clay-loam soils, with slate featuring to a lesser extent.

About

Hannes Schuster took on running the estate alongside his mother Rosi in 2005. Since then he's established his reputation by pushing the vineyards towards organic production and in 2011 winning Gault & Millau Austrian Wine of the Year for his 2009 Blaufränkisch Rusterberg. In the latest edition of Pocket Wine Book, English wine authority Hugh Johnson handed Hannes and the estate a three-star rating, praising his "refined Blaufrankisch" and "sappy, complex St Laurent".