WTF is Blaufränkisch? (AKA Lemberger)

Show Notes

Episode 156: WTF is Blaufränkisch? (AKA Lemberger)  00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

If you are new to our podcast, here is a quick orientation! Each week, we explore a different wine varietal or blend — like Vinho Verde or Tannat or Blaufränkisch (Blau - Frank - Eesh)  — and dive into just what these wines are, what makes them special, and why finding new wines to learn about is so fun.  Our goal is to help you expand your wine knowledge in a fun way that is understandable and accessible to regular people, not just wine nerds!  We also taste and review 2-3 wines under $25 each, and share our scores and recommendations to help you find great wines without breaking the bank. So, thank you so much for joining us! And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining. 

Carmela, I love these WTF episodes, can I just say that? Because in these episodes we get to learn about wines that people don’t know that much about, but, if they want to learn more about wine and feel more educated, these are wines that they really should know about. And  Blaufränkisch is a perfect example of one of those wines. 

Before we get to this week’s wine specifically, I also wanted to just make a few editorial comments. First,  Blaufränkisch is a wine I have been wanting to have on the podcast for a while, but it wasn’t until we increased our ceiling for wine prices that we were able to do so. As a reminder, before this year, we capped wines at $20, which is still our goal in terms of finding reasonably priced wines, but some wines are just too hard to find below that cap, and so raising the cap helped us be able to try this wine that some people call The Pinot Noir of the East - meaning Eastern Europe, and many of you know that Pinot Noir is my favorite wine. 

Which is also a good thing to keep in mind when we do our ratings and reviews because that style of wine is more likely to higher ratings from us than heavy red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. That is not necessarily a knock on heavier reds, but rather just a reminder that you don’t have to agree with the way we rate wines, but what we hope is that you can use our ratings to help you make choices. You may find, for instance, that you tend to like wines we don’t like as much, and that is totally fine with us.

Second, what raising the wine cap has allowed us to do is start to explore wines from Germany and Austria and other regions in places like Central Europe that are imported a little less to the United States. These are wines that are well regarded, but are more often found in places around Europe than in the US, and that is a big incentive for us because we really, really want to help you expand the kinds of wines that you drink, and we find that red Austrian wines as well as German, Hungarian, and Czech wines are very often neglected. 

The white wines of Germany and Austria, like Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Grüner Veltliner are much better known because they can be less expensive, they are also more often grown in other wine regions, and, because the US wine market in general is massively over focused on wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends made from Cabernet Sauvignon, and oaky Chardonnay, so you just rarely hear about these wines, which we think is terrible.

And third, we are finding that a lot of smaller local wineries around the world and the United States that have climates more similar to Germany and Austria and the Czech Republic than to California are starting to really explore German and Austrian wines, which is awesome. Again, the overproduction of Cabernet Sauvignon by the big wine producers has made everyone think they need to drink Cabernet Sauvignon and made wineries all over, big and small, feel like they have to make Cabernet Sauvignon, even though that is a wine that really does much better in warm climate areas like California. And that is why we think there are so many bad Cabernets out there - because they are growing in places they shouldn’t be.

So, regions like Washington, New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Michigan, British Columbia, and Niagra are starting to make wines like Blaufränkisch because they are well suited to their regions and they can make excellent wines from them - much better wines than they can make from Cabernet Sauvignon. 

I hope I am making myself clear, so let me just be totally plain with you. There are so many good red wines out there beyond Cabernet Sauvignon, but we have been fooled and snookered by the wine industry to think a red wine is synonymous with Cabernet Sauvignon. And the reason for that is because that is what grows well in California, and they make a shit-ton of wine there, and that is where they can generate the best profits. I really actually resent this, and what I hope our podcast can do is just expose some more people to different kinds of wines they may like so that we can be smarter and more discerning consumers, and support winemakers and wine regions that make fantastic wines that are not overly extracted, punch-you-in-the face Cabernet Sauvignon.

Wow, that was a lot. I feel like I need to splash some cold water on my face. 

So, let’s get back to the wine of the week this week, and that is Blaufränkisch. We have two Blaufränkisch wines we are going to try today, one from Germany, and one from Austria, and we are going to tell you if we think either or both are worth adding to your shopping list, and we would also love to hear from you if you have a favorite, particularly local, Blaufränkisch wine producer that you love because we would love to share it out! So, I think we need to learn more about Blaufränkisch and review these wines . . . 

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and if you haven’t  had the chance to do so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast  - it is a free way to support us - and a huge thank you to all of you who have subscribed already! 

And, another great way to support is to leave a nice rating and review on our website or on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or other podcast app so we can continue to grow our listeners.

You can also follow us and see pictures of the wines we are tasting and trying today and weird AI pictures I like to make on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast, we are also on Bluesky as well if you are curious and we post differently and more often on there than we do on Instagram, so that is kind of fun, and Blue Sky just has a different vibe that we kind of like. 

And you can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter which comes out on the first of the month, which as we record this is tomorrow, but depending on when you listen to us could be yesterday or even later! Time travel! And, on our website you can now find links in a section called “Shop Wine” where you can buy the wines that we rate as buys in each episode - we send you to website to buy them, and you pay exactly the same price for the wines, but we get a little love from the retailer for sending you their way. It’s a great way for us to keep this podcast free for you - because it’s not free for us! We buy our own wines so that we can provide completely honest and unbiased ratings. 

And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note and tell us what you like and don’t like, if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. And a shout out to Ståle from Norway who reached out to us to let us know we have fans in Norway and we are sent him some stickers - I wonder how long they will take to get there! Let us know when they get there Ståle!

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us - your endorsement by word of mouth is just so valuable. This week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who loves wines like Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Sangiovese, or who is just tired of Cabernet Sauvignon because they may dig this wine.

RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE

• https://winefolly.com/grapes/blaufrankisch/
• https://www.austrianwine.com/our-wine/grape-varieties/red-wine/blaufraenkisch/
• https://dianewinevoyage.com/a-beginners-guide-to-blaufrnkisch-wine/
• https://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-550-blaufrankisch-lemberger 
• Wine 101 The Fascinating Blaufränkisch
• https://www.winetraveler.com/grape/blaufrankisch/
• The Rise of Blaufränkisch Wine | Wine Enthusiast
• Blaufränkisch - Wikipedia
• https://vinepair.com/wine-101/blaufrankisch-wine-guide/
• https://www.newwinereview.com/what-to-drink/the-basics-of-blaufrankisch/
• All About Blaufrankisch - Eastern Europe's Beloved Red Wine
• Blaufränkish Is An Undervalued RED WINE Grape!!!
• Lemberger (Blaufrankisch) - Know Wine In No Time
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ylUdsBQ-g
• What The Fruit is... Blaufränkisch? Popular Red Wine from Austria
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL6fPXC-Jq0 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErImfQXfKo 

Topic: WTF is Blaufränkisch?  12:45

Ok, Carmela, it is time for us to learn just what the fuck Blaufränkisch is, and why we should care. Are you ready?

First, Blaufränkisch is a wine that is also known as Lemberger, and is often called that in Germany, although some winemakers are avoiding that name because it sounds too much like the stinky cheese Limburger, and so sometimes they use the name Blue Frank. Not a joke.

Blaufränkisch also goes by other names depending on where it is from, including Modra Frankinja in Slovenia where it is believed to have originated, Kékfrankos in Hungary, Frankovka in the Czech Republic, and Franconia Nera in Italy. There are several other names it goes by in other countries, and you can go to our show notes for this episode to find lots of links to articles and videos where you can learn more about that, but Frank generally shows up in the name. Except when it’s called Lemberger. And there is a reason for that!

The meaning of the name is interesting - it literally means “blue Frankish,” which may not mean a lot to us now, but evidently in the middle ages, the term Frankish was used in the Middle Ages to mean high-quality varieties of wines, and this grape has been around since the Middle Ages. The Franks were a group that had a kingdom in what is now France. So, that is where the name Frank comes in. Get it?!?

The grape is grown and the wine is generally made in Central Europe, especially Austria and Hungary, but also in countries like Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Germany.

In Austria it is mainly grown, and the wine is mostly made, in a region called Burgenland which is on the very eastern part of the country and borders Hungary and a bit of Slovenia and Slovakia. It is the second most popular red grape variety in Austria after Zweigelt, and makes up about 6% of the grapes grown in the country, but 60% of the red wine grapes grown in Burgenland. In fact, the Mittelburgenland region in Burgenland is sometimes called "Blaufränkischland"

In Hungary, where again it is known as Kékfrankos it is the most planted red grape variety, and a lot of those grapes are grown in the area of Sopron which borders Burgenland in Austria. In the Czech Republic, it is the second most widely grown red grape variety. 

Blaufränkisch is known for being versatile, and so while it is often compared to lighter red wines like Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc, it can also be compared to Nebbiolo - which is the grape in Barolo and Barbaresco - as well as Syrah depending on where it is grown and how it is produced. 

The reason for this is because it is said to be very impacted by the soil it is grown in, and it can change the flavor profile quite a bit. Another thing that will make a difference is whether it is oaked or not, and how long it is oaked can have a big impact on the wine. This is also a wine that can age, and so the age of the wine will also impact it, just like drinking a Barolo early will have a very different taste than one that has matured. 

It is generally described as high in acidity, which means it should be a great food wine, medium to full bodied, moderate to high tannins, and with flavors of dark fruit like black cherry and plum, red fruits like raspberry and cranberry, spice, and earth, which makes sense, then, why it may be compared to Syrah or Nebbiolo.

It is a wine that likes cooler climates with warm summer days and cool nights, and it is said to be an early budding and late ripening grape that needs a long growing season to mature, and it can be very vigorous, which means that vineyard managers have to be careful about there being too many berries in a bunch on the vine because when that happens it can make a thin wine, which is not desirable, if you didn’t already know that. 

Just one more note on the impact of terroir on the wine - and remember that in geeky wine language terroir is just a fancy way of saying “the place.” The region where Blaufränkisch is grown can have a major impact on the style of wine produced. For example

• wines from the Leithaberg region of Burgenland, Austria, are known for their elegance and finesse due to the limestone soils
• while wines from Mittelburgenland are often full-bodied and spicy due to the richer, deeper soils. 
• Lighter, sandier soils will produce a wine with red fruit and spice flavors. 

In general, wines from Burgenland, Austria, are full-bodied and complex, while those from Hungary tend to be more fruit-forward, and wines from Slovenia and Croatia are often lighter-bodied and elegant. So, that is important to know if you want to find one that fits your style.

And, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?


Blaufränkisch Wines We Chose for This Episode 19:40

As usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $25, and they should be relatively easy to find because I bought them both at wine.com. Now, you are not going to find  Blaufränkisch at your local convenience store, but you should be able to find it any place that has a decent selection of Austrian or Hungarian wines, or local wines if you are in an area that is starting to specialize in Blaufränkisch. And, as we always say, go to your local wine shop and ask the owner if they can find this wine for you.

The first wine we are going to try is the 2018 Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch, and this one comes from Baden, Germany. It was super hard to find out much about this wine, but here is something. According to the winery The grapes are carefully harvested by hand, carefully sorted and fermented as whole berries in small containers. The aim is to produce powerful, spicy Blaufränkisch (Lemberger) with a fine tannin structure. The biological acid reduction takes place in used barriques in which the wines mature for 8-12 months.

The website gives a bit of information, including that this wine belongs in the German quality classification of Ortsweine which means that it is grown in a specific village or municipality and is of high quality. And so you know, the German wine system is VDP, but I have no idea how to pronounce the words that make up that acronym, so don’t ask.

Another thing the winery calls out is that they use natural winegrowing processes, harvest by hand, process gently, and use spontaneous fermentation.

The second wine we are going to try is the 2020 Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch. This wine is certified organic, and the wine is fermented in stainless steel before being racked into used stockinger barrels. I didn’t know what Stockinger barrels were, so here is a little bit of research.

Stockinger barrels are oak barrels made by the Austrian cooperage Stockinger. Coopers are barrel makers. They are known for their ability to preserve a wine's fruit flavors without overpowering them with oak. Stockinger barrels are often used for fermentation, and they are made from Austrian and German oak, which has a tight grain and high levels of aromatic compounds. Stockinger barrels are seasoned in the open air for up to five years to reduce astringency and greenness. These barrels are renowned for their ability to preserve fruit flavors. Jancis Robinson called Stockinger barrels "the winemaker's Stradivarius". And the reason you may not have heard about them is because these barrels are not widely available due to the “artisanal nature of the cooperage.”

Another quick story, this time about the estate: The Prieler estate, in Schützen on the western side of the Lake Neusiedl, is a historic old farm, once dedicated to many types of agriculture but now specializing in grape growing. Prieler’s focus on Blaufränkisch as well as Burgundian varieties such as chardonnay, pinot blanc, and pinot noir, which have a long history of cultivation in this part of Burgenland. The area around Vienna was cultivated by Cistercian and Franciscan monks, who founded monasteries along the Danube and brought these varieties from France and Germany.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Cistercian monks because a person very meaningful in my life, Fr. Tim Clark, was a Trappist monk, also known as Cistericians, and he was in the Trappist Abbey near Portland, Oregon. And, interestingly enough, the area the monastery is in is in the Willamette Valley which also specializes in Burgundian wine, and is very close to a great winery called Domaine Serene and some other amazing wineries, and the monastery does offer wine warehousing. Anyway . . . 

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!

LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES

• https://shop.weingut-heitlinger.de/wein/2020-burg-ravensburg-blaufraenkisch-weingut-burg-ravensburg-lemberger-deutscher-qualitaetswein-347268 
• https://www.skurnik.com/sku/blaufrankisch-ried-johanneshohe-prieler-3-2-3-2-2-2/ 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercians 
• https://www.decanter.com/learn/advice/what-is-the-vdp-51673/#:~:text=Ortsweine%3A%20Wines%20that%20express%20regionality,Lage%20or%20Erste%20Lage%20sites. 

2018 Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch, 2020 Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 27:14

Wine: Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: Germany, Baden
Year: 2018
Price: $21.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13%
Grapes: Blaufränkisch
Professional Rating: Vivino 3.7

What we tasted and smelled in this Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch:

• Color: Dark ruby red, some translucence, but darker than a Pinot Noir, pretty
• On the nose: Dark cherry, smoke, earth, cranberry, blackberry, alcohol, black licorice, red licorice, gun powder, cinnamon
• In the mouth: Cherry, spicy, Twizzler, cranberry a little bit of Syrah quality to it, fruity, quite a bit of tannin

Food to pair with this Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch: Red meat, burger, pork tenderloin, chicken, rich foods, spicy food, complements food well - very versatile, Thanksgiving wine 
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 8/10
• Carmela: 8/10

Wine: Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: Austria, Burgenland
Year: 2020
Price: $22.99
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Blaufränkisch
Professional Rating: WE 89. Vivino 3.8

What we tasted and smelled in this Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch:

• Color: Dark ruby red, cloudy or duller or dimmer in hue
• On the nose: Tart cherry, candied cherry, not a big bouquet, green pepper, grass, earth, leafy, herbal, rosemary, oregano, spice, a bit hot
• In the mouth: Tart cherry, incense, sandalwood, cranberry, craisin, tart raspberry

Food to pair with this Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch: Spicier nachos, salty and cheesy foods, potato chips and wine

Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 6/10
• Carmela: 6/10

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

• Carmela: Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch
• Joe: Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch

Taste profiles expected from Blaufränkisch 40:38

• General 
  • Wine Folly: Blackberry bramble, black cherry, dark chocolate, allspice, pepper
  • Wild berries or cherries, red currant, and plum
• Weingut Burg Ravensburg Sulzfeld Blaufränkisch
  • Winery: Deep blue-red, dense ripe aromas of black cherry, plum and wild berries. Powerful on the palate with a fine fruit, rich tannin and a long finish.
• Prieler Johanneshöhe Blaufränkisch
  • WE: This starts out with notes of black olive and sun-dried tomato surrounding a core of wild cherry and finishes with assertive tannins, but the fruit brings balance
  • The Town Cellar: ripe blackberries, raspberry, dark humus, and stones

Verdict: A great dinner party wine, a wow your friends wine. A great wine for people who like a variety of red wines.

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 43:27

Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast app - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

We would also love to hear from you about a wine you would like us to taste and review. You can leave a message for us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com and you can join our email newsletter there - and if you missed our latest newsletter, email me and I will send it to you. You can do that by reaching out at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. And tell us some things you want to hear us do, or not hear us do!

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.

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