2001 Schwarz Schwarzrot

Schwarz is an artisanal producer in Neusiedlersee, Austria. It is the winemaking enterprise of Johann Schwarz, who is a butcher by training and profession. But Schwarz also owns about 30 acres of vineyards, some of which he rents to his neighbor, the much admired winemaker Alois Kracher. Schwarz is also a friend of Manfred Krankl, the Austrian now famous for his California-based Sine Qua Non wines. Krankl and Kracher persuaded Schwarz to try making his own wines a few years ago and the results have been impressive enough to catch the attentions of wine writers. Robert M. Parker Jr. has called Schwarz’s wines “very formidable, intense, tactile.”