279: Leo Alzinger

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

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4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2015

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Leo Alzinger, Jr. works with his family at the Alzinger winery in Austria's Wachau.

Leo Alzinger discusses the key vineyard holdings of the family, as well as some of the realities of climate change, and the conditions of some recent vintages. He also details some of the changes that have occurred at the winery as some techniques regarding lees contact and sulphur use have been fine-tuned. And Leo explains some of the differences between Gruner Veltliner and Riesling, both in terms of growing them in the vineyards and working with them in the winery.

Also in this episode, Erin Scala recounts the history of vines in the Wachau.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.
0:05.1	I'm Levy Dalton.
0:06.1	I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Five to 10, 10,000 years ago, grape vines made their way up the Danube River as they traveled with groups of people to northern parts of Europe.
0:36.0	But during the height of the Roman Empire, Emperor Demetian banned grape growing north of the Alps to protect the Roman wine industry and European
0:44.8	winemaking cooled down.
0:48.4	This decree was overturned in the year 280 by Marcus Aurelius Probus and the wine industry in now Austria ramped up once again.
0:57.1	In peace time, Probus sent his troops north to help clear land for vineyards, including areas
1:02.4	along the Danube.
1:04.1	Though his decree ended up being great for the ensuing wine industry, in some historic
1:08.7	accounts, Probus was killed in a vineyard by angry soldiers who thought their new position as civilian laborers
1:15.8	was an unfit appropriation of their skills.
1:20.5	Probus wasn't the only famous leader who had trouble among the Danube vines.
1:24.0	Richard the Lion-Hearted. He didn't have such a great time there either.
1:28.0	Leopold the 5th, the Duke of Austria, suspected his cousin's death was a result of a planned hit by Richard
1:36.0	the Lionhearted.
1:37.6	And also during the Crusades, Leopold had been deeply offended when he claimed a title
1:42.3	equal to Richards, but instead of accepting,
1:45.0	Richard had Leopold's flag torn down from the ramparts of the captured castle in
1:51.0	acre. Later, when Richard made his way back to England, he tried to pass
1:56.4	through Leopold's territory in Vienna, but Leopold had him captured and
2:01.2	imprisoned along the Danube in what is today the Vachau at
2:05.3	Dernstein Castle. Richard was later moved and released for a large sum of money, but you
	...

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