The new vintage of Erich Altenriderer's Zweigelt - he doesn't make it every year but he did in 2009 and the wine is a great success. A dark brick red, with spice, nutmeg, pepper and earth on the nose. On the palate it's a juicy sappy wine, with spice, cherries, and dark berry fruit flavours. Good length, gamey and spicy. You can chill it as you would a mid-weight Beaujolais which makes it a great summer wine. An excellent value Zweigelt. As with the 2006 vintage, Erich can claim the success of having this wine selected for the Oz Clarke 250 Best Wines Guide, this time the 2012 edition, weighing in at number 85/250, where the following description appears:-

"Zweigelt is a smashing Austrian grape. If it had a French name we'd probably lap it up and it would be a drinkers' darling. But having a German name at the moment condemns a wine to pleading with wine lovers just to give it a chance. Well, I'll do the pleading this time. This is about as crunchy as a red wine gets. Crunchy as in celery, as in white peppercorns, and this gives a mouth-watering chewy rasp to the full red plum fruit and a mellow softness like red cherry shortbread. Full of fruit, savoury and scented with lovage, as chewy as grape skins, as juicy as the blood red grape itself."