Next weekend, my girlfriend and I will be hosting a party in honor of F.A. Hayek's 110th birthday. To celebrate the occasion properly, we need an appropriate supply of Austrian beer and wine. Perhaps some of our more alcoholically sophisticated readers can recommend a good place in the DC or northern Virginia area where such beverages can be purchased.
The party might well be the DC libertarian social event of the season, with various luminaries attending, including multiple Volokh Conspirators. So we need to supply the assembled company with praxeologically appropriate sustenance. The Constitution of Liberty needs proper fortification!
On a slightly more serious note, here's a link to my post on why Hayek is still relevant today. Indeed, given current efforts to impose at least temporary government planning on large portions of the economy, Hayek is even more relevant today then when I wrote the post last summer. Also still relevant is Hayek's critique of conservatism.
http://www.wineaccess.com/store/calvertwoodley
That's a sentence I never expected to read.
Sk
Nussdorfer St. Thomas Brau (Altbier style)
Schloss Eggenberg Hopfen Konig Pils (Pilsner style)
Schloss Eggenberg Urbock 23 (Doppelbock style)
My personal recommendation, if you can find it--and I have reservations about whether you can--is Fohrenburger Pilsner, from Vorarlberg, the westernmost state in Austria.
As far as wines go, I recommend nearly anything from South Tyrol--though it's no longer a part of Austria (it's the part of Northern Italy known as Alto Adige)--it was at the time Hayek was born. My personal favorite variety is the Vernatsch, a mild, smooth red that's low in tannins. You can get a good, inexpensive bottle at the Whole Foods on P Street in DC.
They will be able to point you to all Austrian beers. As for wine: call the Austrian embassy in DC.
You need to spell it Brickskeller, not Brickseller. You want a basement (Keller) built with bricks, not some guy who sells bricks.
Some of my friends from college refer to those types of brands as "Eurotrash beers."
Although pilsen's technically in the Czech Republic I've always associated Austria with Pilsner style beers and the Bock and Doppelbock style beers more with Western and Northern Germany, although they're really pretty evenly spread out.
A quick search discovered this site listing a number of Austrian beers. If there's a local liquor store that stocks specialty beers they're sure to have a few of them.
I agree with looking for Italian wines from the Alto Adige. If the winemaker has a Germanic name, you're looking at a Sudtiroler.
I wouldn't diss Steigl. Try their Maerzen. Austrian Maerzen beers are not high alcohol like their German brothers.
On the West Coast, the twin of Salzburg's Trumer beer is brewed in Berkeley.
I'd also suggest checking Rick's Wine and Gourmet on Duke St. in Alexandria. They have a broad selection, including my favorite Lichtensteinian riesling (even harder to find than Australian wine). Even if they don't have what you need in stock, if it's a wine that one of their distributors carries, they will order it for you. When I needed three cases of champagne, it arrived in half a week.
(And if you hurry, you can get to Rick's before today's beer tasting ends at 5pm).
Nick
On a side note, I was incredibly disappointed with Wegman's options. Much inferior to Whole Foods.
My recollection is that Austria-Hungary may also have controlled part of what now is Italy, and Wikipedia notes Hayek fought on the Italian front in WW1, so if you want an excuse to add Italian wines, I'd go Italian for reds, Austrian for whites, and Hungary for tokaji (not to be confused with "tokay" from Alsace).
partysymposion (their telephone number is (202) 895-6754: When you call, introduce yourself as "Professor Somin"..).I do not view wine and beer as the highlights of Austrian cuisine.
If you want to cook: You find some links at
http://www.austria.org/content/view/100/116/
If you want some almost real Austrian food try Leopold's Kafe in Georgtown:
http://www.kafeleopolds.com/
They have coffee (DO NOT ORDER DRIP) and sweets which are almost as good as in Vienna...
I am told that 2004 might well prove to be a century vintage for grüner Veltliner, but YMMV.
Coffee. Definitely coffee. Mit schlag. And order up some Sachertorte (or better, make an order for Imperialtorte, which is what is served at the Hotel Imperial and IMO is far superior).
http://www.weinbausattler.com/ekeller.html
And I second my brother's recommendation for Imperialtorte.
https://www.imperialtorte.at/en/homepage/
Checking their website you have to be in the Salzburg metro area. They sell it by keg, carton, or case at their beer garden's Bierrampe, seven days a week; or they have a list of beer bars and dealers in the area that stock it.
Wisconsin's Point Special had a similar distribution philosophy: When you're out of Point, you're out of town.
Austria also produces various real fruit spirits, called Obstler, that are concentrated essences of fruit at their ripest.
*Mozartkugeln, chocolate covered marzipan, are made in Austria and copied in Germany.
Gruner Veltliner is the "up and coming" Austrian varietal. It's kind of like a Reisling, but less fruity, and tending to be less sweet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BCner_Veltliner. I'm sure the staff at Arrowine will be able to recommend some good labels.
Don't overlook Gewurtztraminers, either; but those are more classically German/ Rhine.
In the Wachau, wines are classified by ripeness of the grapes used to produce the wines (really the potential alcohol based on the sugar level of the grapes), the highest level of which is Smaragd (meaning emerald, and also the name of an emerald green lizard that suns itself on the hilly, rocky vineyards), which is roughly equivalent in ripeness to a German spatlese if memory serves correctly. Federspiel is the next lowest rung on the ripeness ladder, which tend to be somewhat shorter lived and less complex, though they can still be very good. I've had particularly good luck with Nikolaihof's Federspiels.
Taking a look at the Bassin's MacArthur website, they have wines from many of the top producers. Schloss Gobelsburg tends to offer outstanding value with a very high quality level. Other favorite producers of mine who are carried by MacArthur include include Alzinger, Brundlemeyer, Hirsch, Hiedler, Hirtzberger, Knoll, Jamek, Nigl, and Nikolaihof, and I've had consistently impressive results from each of them. F.X. Pichler is extremely highly regarded, and I've loved some of his wines, but they tend to push the envelope and can sometimes trade extraction for complexity. Prager has a very good reputation, but I have less experience with their wines.
The downside is that the better wines aren't cheap, but even the best (like Knoll's Schutt vineyard wines and Hirtzberger's Honivogl and Singerriedel vineyard wines) are good values on a global scale compared to other wines of comparable quality.
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