Achs’s 2006 Blaufrankisch Altenberg displays bright, sappy blackberry, cassis, and blueberry fruit with deep bitter-sweet, smoky, toasted nut underpinnings. Finishing with verve and black fruited intensity and with chalky mineral suggestions, it should be worth following for 6-8 years at least.Paul Achs has developed a reputation as one of Austria’s top red wine vintners, and it was high time I paid him another visit. Like many vintners – not only in Austria – Achs is moving in the direction of 500 liter barrels and away from barriques, which considering the explicit, extraneous oak imprint on some of his past wines (including his 2006 Pinot Noir), strikes me as sensible. He has also embraced biodynamic viticultural methods. A number of his 2007 wines – both white and red – were sligthly reductive, tart, and tight last June, but it is early days to assess the reds in particular, the simplest of which he planned to bottle just prior to harvest 2008. (Ach’s 2007 Blaufrankisch Ungerberg looked to be the star of the vintage here.) Unfortunately, I did not have chance to taste Ach’s less-expensive 2006 reds. His upper-end 2006 reds were all bottled several months earlier than in past years – he said they showed well early and he preferred to try to capture that.Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334 6700

The 2003 Blaufrankisch Altenberg, smells intensely of blackberry compote and Szechuan pepper. Intense black fruit and pepper on the palate go hand in hand with glyceral richness and fat that cover the wine’s more than ample tannins. The finish is single-mindedly of black fruit and pepper, well focused but with a trace of heat and (perhaps just youthful?) austerity. It is wonderful to see two such different wines emerging from the same grape, vintner, and vintage. Aside from whatever this may tell us about terroir, it makes for welcome variety and a reason to follow them both. Clearly this Altenberg is reaching for a bigger, more structured effect, but today at least, the Ungerberg is not only more winsome but also far more complex.Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334 6700