Moric, Blaufränkisch “Reserve”

Roland Velich has become an internationally recognized wine celebrity for his work with old-vine Blaufränkisch in Austria’s Burgenland DAC. His assortment of reds, including several single-vineyard bottlings of the variety, are widely considered to be the Gold Standard in the zone. Sommeliers are all about benchmarks, and as I continue to explore not just Burgenland Blaufränkisch but the wider world of Germanic reds, I measure new discoveries against what Velich produces from his 25 hectares of vines in the villages of Neckenmarkt and Lutzmannsburg. His are reference-point wines, plain and simple.The Burgenland appellation, running along Austria’s border with Hungary southeast of Vienna, has a diverse topography and a mix of soils, with more primary rock and slate at higher locations and dense loams in the rolling hills that extend toward the Pannonian plain (a warming influence that is important in getting the late-ripening Blaufränkisch fully mature). Moric’s organically farmed viney