Published by Jeremy.
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When we think of Zweigelt as a grape, our minds go to bright and fresh wine, often meant to be consumed young.
Michael Opitz Zweigelt Reserve, on the other hand, shines with some age on it, and we were lucky enough to try a 2019 vintage as part of our Vinera Wine Society box (provided courtesy for review) at roughly six years old, where it was just starting to show its full potential.
An ageable Zweigelt? Well, now we're really interested.
A Flavorful Older Zweigelt
This Austrian Zweigelt was medium purple in color with medium aromas of dried red cherries, black cherry, cedar, sandalwood, blackberry, cassis, leather, tobacco, stewed strawberries, cranberry, raspberry, violet, and rose.
On the palate, it was dry with high acidity, medium alcohol, body, smooth tannin, and flavor intensity, plus a medium(+) finish. We had notes of red cherry, cranberry, raspberry, wet stone, violet, clove, cedar, leather, and black pepper.
This one was interesting as it was starting to show some great characteristics of age at six years old, and we really are curious what flavors would develop with a bit more time.
Zweigelt Food Pairing – Miso Mushrooms with Greens
We paired this Austrian Zweigelt with miso mushrooms on rice with greens. The mushrooms helped bring out more earthy notes like leather as well as slight floral characteristics. It muted the fruit slightly, but we did note more dark fruit notes coming through all the same.
The greens brought out more blueberry and made the wine a bit more acidic in perception.
Score: 4 / 5
We'd buy another bottle of this one.
Overall, this was quite the enjoyable Zweigelt, and with a bit of age this one had a lot of character you would likely not expect if you only drank this grape when young. We would love to see how this one would drink with even more age!
Michael Optiz Winery is located at Quergasse 17, A-7143 Apetlon in Burgenland, Austria. We received this bottle as part of our Vinera Wine Society subscription provided courtesy for review and enjoyed it in 2025. As always, all opinions are our own. For more, check out our Vinera Wine Society review!
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