2004 Chardonnay Trockenbeerenauslese #9 Nouvelle Vague

Even the unchallenged sweet wine guru of Austria was able to produce only one Trockenbeerenauslese and one red Beerenauslese from zweigelt in the hot 2003 vintage. To bridge the gap, Kracher tested consumer acceptance for Auslese wines, with surprising success. (But then consumers know by now that the Kracher name on the label is virtually a guarantee of high quality.) These food-friendly wines sold well in restaurants and were also easier on the wallet than Kracher's rare TBAs. Still, Kracher clearly views the recently released 2004 vintage with a great deal of relief. "I didn't initially expect such a classic vintage for botrytized sweet wines," he told me. "The summer was warm and there was a danger that grape skins would be too thick. But thanks to a rigorous selection we were able to harvest a third of our botrytized grapes for our premium wines. Unfortunately, quantities are low." Kracher, incidentally, has added a promising new product to his line-up: a non-vintage TBA in a tiny 0.187-liter bottle for the restaurant trade. Kracher's TBA collection from vintage 2004 includes ten wines that are numbered according to increasing must weights. "Zwischen den Seen" is the label designation for wines made via classic Burgenland vinification in large wooden casks or stainless steel. "Nouvelle Vague" graces the labels of the wines that are vinified in new and used small oak barrels in the Sauternes tradition. I tasted these wines at the end of September, a month after they were bottled.