Published by Jeremy.
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Normally when we think of wine aged in a solera system, our minds go to the fortified wine Sherry. But some still wine is also aged in solera style, with Johannes Zillinger “JZ” Revolution White Solera from Austria being one such bottle.
This blend of Riesling, Chardonnay, and Scheurebe came with an intensity that we honestly did not quite expect!
An Interesting Solera Still Wine
This white wine blend was medium lemon in color with a slight haziness in appearance.
It had medium(+) aromas of green apple, pear, pineapple, lemon, lime, white flower, peach, honeysuckle, and nectarine. The floral character was prominent but did not overtake the fruit notes the way some more aromatic wines may be.
On the palate we detected a slight hit of residual sugar to be off-dry with high acidity, medium alcohol, medium(+) body and flavor intensity, and a long finish. We caught notes of lemon, pear, peach, nectarine, green apple, wet stone, saline, honeysuckle, elderflower, blossom, and apricot. Still prominent floral notes on the flavors of this one but a bit more fruit-forward than the aromas all around.
Austrian White Wine Food Pairing – Indian Lentils
We paired this high-acid white wine with Indian-inspired lentils with a side of creamy carrot raita as the high acidity always plays nicely with these kinds of dishes.
On the lentil side, the rich spices in the dish helped accentuate the acidity even more and allowed more of the fruit notes to shine. Conversely, the creaminess of the raita really cut through the acidity nicely, almost to the point where we would drop it to medium at best, and helped showcase a strong peach flavor all around.
While I wouldn't say this pairing did much to change the components of the wine beyond the raita pairing, it still went together with the meal nicely all the same.
Score: 3.5 / 5
We'd buy a glass of this one and another bottle in the right context.
This was an interesting white wine from Austria that came bursting with fruit as well as a prominent floral characteristic that we appreciated. As other wines of that intensity would likely be a lot lower on the acid spectrum to match that level of florality (think: Gewurztraminer), we really enjoyed this one all around and would happily have a glass or, with the right food pairing, another bottle!
Johannes Zillinger “JZ” Winery is located at Landstraße 70, 2245 Götzendorf in Austria. We received this bottle as part of a Picked by Wine.com subscription and enjoyed it in 2023.
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