JoisephBlaufranksich “BFF” 2021 (750ml)

This is the wine that sorta first blew away a friend, in Austria, who emailed me… and set this all in motion. Although it opens often a bit reductive (they normally ferment it with nearly 1/2 whole bunches and covered with the destemmed mash to provoke something of a semi-carbonic fermentation to begin), the wine opens up and literally unfurls into fine layer after fine layer of bright red to dark purple fruit – all that good shit: sour dark black earth, a Rhône-ish spice, black olive, tension, cranberry, green spice, salt, good energy and mineral on the palate. Wow – this wine is fucking good.

In certain Austrian-wine-dork circles, this is one of those wines people talk about. Not cheap, but not expensive, not showy, flashy or avant-garde – just fucking good. This is slowly becoming one of those accessible cult wines, like Clos Roche Blanche back in the day. There is something about the accessibility here, the balance of tangible and savory fruit, the saturation of the wine, and on the other hand its reticent nature, the pull and energy…  always a gentle breeze pushing back the sunshine. I dunno – this bottle might be about as perfect as Blaufränkisch gets – not regal or grand like Moric, or… eh…  as funked up and janky as some other Burgenland Blau, but just balanced and pure and vibrant.