November 20, 2025 • 36 mins
This is a Vintage Selection from 2005
The Banter
The Guys tell of an unnecessary battle: it’s curtains!
The Conversation
The Restaurant Guys welcome wine and restaurant critic Peter Schleimer from his home in Austria. They talk about grape-loving birds, where to get authentic Austrian food and some wine recommendations that are still good advice today.
The Inside Scoop
The Guys have spent time eating and drinking with Peter both in the U.S. and in Austria. They ask him about the rise in popularity of Austrian wines at the time.
“The main reason is that we just have extremely interesting varieties. We have stuff other countries don't have and that's the secret. We have great varieties that are first of all, unique and second of all, interesting, too.
It doesn't help if they're only unique and they and the wines suck,” Peter Schleimer on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2005
Bio
Peter Schleimer worked in the Austrian wine industry, specifically at the Austrian Wine Marketing Board and the Austrian Wine Academy, and as an editor for the Austrian trade journal Vinaria, he was appointed its editor-in-chief in 2006. Peter was also editor-in-chief of the biannual magazine Vinaria Gourmet from 2006 to 2011.
Since 2025, Peter Schleimer has run a restaurant in Mödling called Genussatelier Mödling with Doris Bracher. He also operates a wine business focused on international markets and cultivates his own wine on a small scale in the Thermenregion.
Info
Wine recs
Schloss Gobelsburg
*We have some at Stage Left Wine Shop!
https://www.stageleftwineshop.com/wines/Schloss-Gobelsburg-Riesling-1er-Cru-OTW-Heiligenstein-2020-w4844439u9
Weingut Glatzer
https://www.weingutglatzer.at/en/
Heidi Shröck & Son
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark (01:30):
And now you can download our podcast through iTunes.
Francis (01:34):
And just in case you don't know what much Mark's
talking about with this wholepodcasting thing, uh, it's great
to hear us live on the radio andwe love to keep you company
between 11 and noon.
But you can go to thesepodcasting sites, you can go to
our website and find old showsand listen to them because.
Some of you came in late in thegame and you can get the reruns
at Will.
Good morning, mark.
Good morning, Francis.
Mark (01:52):
How are you this morning?
I'm doing great, man.
Doing great.
Well, doing great.
I'm not in construction anymore.
Francis (01:57):
Yippee.
The word is.
The word is out.
Uh, mark and I have traded inour construction.
Hard hats for actual restaurant,although I did like, like the
Mark (02:06):
little, the cool little light on the top of it.
Francis (02:08):
It's a minor half by the way.
And we weren't mining.
Um, Catherine Lombardirestaurant is now open in
downtown New Brunswick.
Um, the reason we bring this upis not as an advertisement,
though it is a bit of ashameless plug.
But we've really changed fromconstruction mode into
restaurant mode.
And, and running a newrestaurant is very exciting.
Um, and you still, you reallyare a jack of all trades, but a
heck, I like it a heck of a lotbetter than, than, than managing
(02:31):
a construction site Ype, becauseI'm good at this.
I'm actually good at this, butthe things that, that amaze me
now, we've put almost 2 millionoff.
You know what?
It's,
Mark (02:40):
it's not, it's not even that.
I'm, that we're good at it,Francis.
It's that we know how to fix theproblems.
Exactly.
And there are problems.
It's a brand new restaurant.
We have a lot of work to dobefore we get it to where we
wanna go.
Francis (02:50):
I didn't say the restaurant was good yet.
I said we, we've just opened andwe literally, we don't have a
sign that says we're open.
We sort of snuck downstairs lastMonday and open the doors.
Uh, so if you come, so if youreally would like to come out
and have a perfect meal, tryanother restaurant.
Come to Catherine Lombardi,states left is fantastic.
You might another go to anotherrestaurant in town.
Um, Catherine Lombardi will begreat in about a month.
Um, and, uh.
(03:11):
It's, but it's, the food isgreat and the room is beautiful,
but what's, what amazes me is nomatter how well you plan mm-hmm.
If you do an original space, andthis is why I think corporations
can save so much money.
'cause if you have a standardspace that you build a million
times in a million places,right.
And
Mark (03:24):
it's exactly, it's identical in square footage.
And you know, this is four feetfrom this, and this is three
feet from this, and this is twofeet from this.
Francis (03:31):
Both of our restaurants are in a 1925 building.
That's a weird sort oftriangular shape.
I, I've
Mark (03:37):
elected to open a restaurant in a triangle.
If anybody think, thinks thatthat's a good
Francis (03:42):
idea.
It's horrible.
And you get all these weirdangles, these like
Mark (03:46):
shark tooth rooms that slice it, slice it, put it just
for fun.
Just go home and put a diagonalpiece of tape in one of your
rooms and try and rearrange yourfurniture rights.
Figure out where to put thecouch
Francis (03:57):
anyway, and the bookshelf and the television
because you're always lookingoff at 45 degrees.
Anyway, the things that amaze meare.
We spent close to 2 millionbucks.
Right.
And the restaurant is beautiful,but you know, there's that one
place where the light didn't,didn't go right.
We gotta put in two more lights.
You
Mark (04:11):
know what I mean?
The one I love is the, is thelight that just goes to nowhere.
Yeah.
That point's on nothing.
You're shining, you're shiningup the back of a couch.
Francis (04:19):
S we moved something during construction but didn't
move the light.
Yeah, that's gotta change.
The other thing we do is, youknow, you spend 2 million bucks
and.
You put the electrical outletexactly one foot further away
from the appliance you need toplug in.
You know what I mean?
And you spend
Mark (04:34):
2 million like, well, because you spent$2 million, but
you didn't measure the cord onthe espresso machine.
Everything's a heartbreaker.
Yeah, everything's aheartbreaker.
So you, they're tugging on theespresso machine hoping that it
will just
Speaker 5 (04:45):
grow an extra 12 inches.
Francis (04:47):
And my favorite story of all, and the thing about when
you open a restaurant, arestaurant is regulated.
As a general assembly use, whichmeans that the fire codes are
stricter because you have, youknow, in an office building
mm-hmm.
In a, in a, in a private home,you have one set of standards in
an office building that thepublic is going to be in.
You have another set ofstandards in what's called a
general assembly use, which isa, a restaurant or a theater.
(05:08):
You have an even higher level ofstandards and that's, that's
valid, but it's also expensiveand it's also a paint.
And on a second floorrestaurant, and Catherine
Lombardi is on the second floor,it's even higher.
So, um, mark and I got into thefirst argument.
We got it.
We went through this year longproject without one well, FUFU
argument, and it finallyhappened.
Day before yesterday
Mark (05:29):
about whether a set of curtains should be drawn or not
drawn.
We're not saying that thecurtain should have been there
or not been there.
We're not saying
Speaker 5 (05:38):
anything.
You built 10,000 square feet ofrestaurant without, without much
of a cross word Knock down, dragout.
This was like, this was, you
Francis (05:46):
you're an idiot.
You're an idiot.
This was the, it's escalating infront of the staff.
We're gonna go outside and gofor a walk.
Alright, so we finally get donewith this ridiculous argument
and we walked in yesterdaymorning.
Our third partner, Lou wasthere.
He's like, yeah, fire inspectorwas in this morning, have to
take the curtains down, nocurtains here.
Can't have'em.
It's a fire exit.
That was God just telling us tobe.
(06:07):
Yeah.
Yeah.
He, God telling you and me toshut up, uh, I will, I will.
Go ahead.
I'll always remember the, um.
When we opened Old Vines, we rana wine shop for a while.
Mm-hmm.
Which we then, um, the, thedemand for stage left restaurant
became so great that we madedining room, my wine shop was
eaten by my restaurant.
So we, we opened Old Vines andwe had a sign out in front of
(06:27):
the, the storefront that saidOld Vines Wine Shop.
Mm-hmm.
And I always remember I waswalking into work and this was
something that we didn't dowrong, but it was a guy, an old
guy, an old New Brunswick guy.
I see him on the streets everyday, was just looking up at the
sign with his mouth, a escape.
And so I sort of sidled up nextto him and I was looking up at
the sign, my cup of DunkingDonuts coffee in my hand with my
(06:48):
mouth, a gap.
And I said, uh, what you lookingat?
And he said, uh, I can't believeit.
They spelled it wrong.
I said, what do you mean?
He said, old wines, they spelledit wrong.
And you know what he said, oh myGod, I'm gonna go tell'em.
That was old.
(07:08):
It was old wine.
Mark (07:09):
And just to, so everyone gets inside our heads.
Old vines, we believe, tend tomake the greatest grapes.
They make fewer grape, tend tomake the greatest grapes, which
make, make the greatest.
But it wa it wasn't a misspelledsign.
No old one.
So it just a quick story aboutour latest construction foibles.
Yeah.
Uh, we still don't have draftbeer in the new restaurant.
You know, we're open for four orfive days.
(07:30):
Still can't get draft beer inthe new restaurant.
So I'm dealing with this companyand I, so I call, I am like,
listen, you told me you're gonnabe here at 8:00 AM yesterday to,
to, to get in.
And the guy goes, oh, you talkedto Joey C See, I'm Joey.
S.
So, you know, you gotta, youknow, I, I do the best I can
(07:51):
here, but Joey c you talked toJoey C he's the guy who, and so
I've started referring to thesetwo gentlemen as Joey, super sad
and Joey Capol.
'cause they are, because theyare
Speaker 5 (08:01):
two Italian pork products.
See, you can do that'causeyou're Italian.
See me?
I'm wanna get punched
Francis (08:06):
in the face.
Maybe do something like that.
Mark (08:08):
But Joey, Joey s says to me, oh yeah, uh, we, we gotta
install that tomorrow.
Because why?
You do, just why.
Yeah.
Well, Joey C told me you could.
Yeah.
Well, I'm Joey.
S you, you could tell me thedifference between us.
'cause I'm the good looking one.
Um, Joey s Yeah.
(08:30):
I'm talking to you on the phone.
Francis (08:31):
I know what you look like.
You have big gaba.
That was close.
That was almost right.
I gotta, I gotta tell you,there's a place in Jersey
sitting near my house that is,is um, well it's just a place
that's all I'll say.
And it's a place that servesfood or something like it.
And it's called.
Gaba.
Goz Gaba Goul.
G-A-B-A-G-O-O-L-Z.
Mark (08:53):
That's hysterical.
Gaba Goz.
By the way, if anybody has heardthe Sopranos or whatever, say
gaba, go.
That's a, that word starts witha C.
It does start with a z CapaCola.
Francis (09:02):
Yeah.
I'm in all American Italianstuff.
I'm learning.
Operating your family'srestaurant.
I'm, I'm running about like gu,you know?
Yeah.
Starts with a C.
Starts with a C.
Starts with a C.
That's definitely a C.
Sorry.
The other thing I love is theItalians who speak Italian, come
to the restaurant and talk tothe Italian Americans who like.
Imitate the grandmother'sItalian and it's slightly
different.
And you all have arguments abouthow to pronounce stuff.
That's, and
Mark (09:22):
most of us are wrong for, for an
Francis (09:23):
Irishman.
That's really an interestingthing to watch.
All I have to worry about isspelling mistakes.
Anyway, you're listening to therestaurant guys.
We have a guest coming up.
A gentleman named Peter Schlemerwill be joining us by telephone
from Austria to talk to us aboutAustrian food, wine, and the
Michelin Guide and a flock ofbirds that is attacking Austrian
grapes.
My heavens, you're listening tothe Restaurant Guy, Hey, you're
back with the restaurant guys,mark and Francis from Stage Left
and Catherine LombardiRestaurants in downtown New
(09:45):
Brunswick, and today we have aspecial guest joining us.
Peter Schlemer writes for theAustrian publication Aria.
He writes about and reviewswines and also restaurants in
his native Austria and workedwith American importer Terry
Feast, sending some of the.
Finest Austrian wine right hereto us in the United States.
He's our house expert on wineand all things Austrian.
He joins us from his homeoutside Vienna to talk with us
(10:08):
about the burgeoning culinaryand en analogical love affair
between our two countries.
Hi there, Peter.
Welcome back to the show.
Peter, welcome back.
Peter (10:15):
Hello.
Good evening.
Uh, good evening in Austria.
My good.
Your
Francis (10:19):
evening.
Good day here.
Good
Peter (10:20):
morning in, in the States.
It's great to be here with you.
Francis (10:23):
Well, vicariously anyway, or through the, through
the telephone lines.
Yeah.
Hey, Peter, this call, not thatI need a reason to call you, but
in, in the spirit of fulldisclosure, Peter and Mark and I
are are old friends.
Um, but this call came aboutbecause I read, uh, an AP
article, uh, that was based outof Eisenstadt, Austria, and I,
and I wanna read from it.
It says, giants.
Flocks of hungry starlings havedescended upon vineyards in
(10:44):
Eastern Austria in scenesreminiscent of Alfred
Hitchcock's.
The Birds of Vintner told theAustrian media on Wednesday, the
birds come every year in Bergenland, but this year the flocks
are much larger than U usualsaid Vintner.
Walter Kern Bauer.
The birds attack every morning.
It's like the Hitchcock moviequote.
Uh, he was quoted as saying bythe Associated Press,
Mark (11:02):
I read this, I was afraid for your life, Peter.
I love that.
Francis (11:04):
I love this.
It said Kern Barrel was notavailable for comment to the
Associated Press as he was outin the fields dealing with the
birds and employees said, what'sgoing on, Peter?
Peter (11:16):
Well, uh, a short explanation.
I mean, this, this is of course,this is a, a problem we have
every year and it's, um,actually.
Regional problem, which is,typical of the, the way eastern
part of Austria, which where itborders, Hungary, and, um,
that's where you have a warmerclimate.
You have a very large, um,population of various birds and
(11:39):
so you, you have a lot of hungrybirds there too,
Speaker (11:43):
Uhhuh.
And,
Peter (11:44):
and the thing is that, um, in the northern part of the
Boland, the, the province iscalled Boland.
the growers have had theseproblems viciously, you know,
fighting the birds for, formany, many years.
And Mr.
K Bower, who is located in thecenter of, um.
Was kind of not expecting.
(12:05):
you know, he's had theseproblems, but not, not in a, in
a,
Mark (12:08):
not to this degree,
Peter (12:09):
not in a weird way.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And, and this year it's, it'sbeen really bad.
So, so they have been totallysurprised and.
Kind of frightened by the, bythe flocks of birds that
descended over the vineyards.
Mark (12:24):
So Peter, I would, I would expect that a grape fattened
bird is very tasty.
Why is this
Francis (12:29):
still a problem on a stream menus everywhere This
Starling special is, uh, verycheap.
Yeah.
What, what do they do?
I mean, are starlings good eat?
Is there a way they should goout and shoot them?
Peter (12:42):
Um, well that's what they used to do actually.
But, uh, a few years ago theywere, um.
Put under protection.
So, uh, you're in fact notallowed to, to hunt them, which
is, um, a certain problem.
I mean, nowadays they, they usekind of, um, shooting machines,
which kind of just, you know,give a loud bang, uhhuh every
(13:04):
few minutes.
And, but the birds, you know,they get really used to them.
They're not stupid.
They, you know, they love thegrape diet.
They love the sweet grapes
Mark (13:12):
especially.
Yeah.
Francis tried the same thingwith me for a while and didn't
work.
I kept coming back
Francis (13:19):
right
Speaker 5 (13:19):
by
Francis (13:19):
the
Speaker 5 (13:19):
cellar.
Bang.
Francis (13:21):
It worked for like a monk.
What was that?
Ah, well now just so we, we knowwhat kind of stuff we're talking
about.
This isn't.
Silly.
Um, the Starling feasting ongrapes meant to become Bergen
Land Wines have caused damagethis year, estimated between 96
and$120,000 to Kern Bauer.
He said, that's a lot of money.
Peter (13:40):
It is a lot of money.
Um, it's, and, and it's, youknow, it's, it's a battle.
You know, they're, they'refighting a losing battle in
mm-hmm In reality, there areactually, there's very little
you can do.
There's one, um, pretty safemethod, which is, um.
Putting nets over the, the rowsof vines.
So you kind of, but this isextremely work intensive, and
(14:02):
it's of course expensive too.
You have to get these very finemesh nets, nets to put over
every row of vines, you know,and if you have something like,
I don't know, 20 or or 30hectares of wines, it's, it's.
Great deal of work you have toput into, and a
Francis (14:17):
hector a hectare is about 2.2 acres, so that's a lot
Mark (14:20):
of land to cover.
And then while you're, when youhave to tend to your grapes or
do pruning or do anything likethat, you've gotta deal with the
nets as well.
Peter (14:27):
Exactly, yeah.
It, it, it hinders you in yourwork.
And on the other hand.
You know, it, it's, it'sextremely work intensive to put
them up too.
Francis (14:36):
So it's, I I have this vision in my head of Peter
Schlemer stuck in a bird in a,in a burg line vineyard,
Peter (14:40):
Hey, did you see me last week?
Francis (14:44):
Like, being stuck in a fairy ring.
So let, let's broaden theconversation a little bit
though, Peter.
I mean, I know we've been, we'vetalked before, you and one of
the first guests on our show,but, um.
So we can retread that issue.
It's been, uh, we, we, it's beenlong enough in the past.
I've even taken you off thearchives.
We'll get you back on again now.
Um, now we see a lot of Austrianwine in the United States over
the last 10 years or so.
And I first met you when I came,first, went to Austrian, I guess
(15:06):
it was 96.
Would you say
Peter (15:08):
something like 96 or 97, something like that?
Yeah.
Francis (15:11):
Well, now Austrian wine prior to that was sort of
unheard of.
And in the last 10 years it'scome to be, I mean, if you don't
have Austrian wine on your list,you're, you're not cool.
All the cool kids are drinkingAustrian wine.
How did, how did that happen?
How'd you guys invade theAmerican market so quickly and
become, you know, de reger ofany serious wine restaurant?
Peter (15:27):
I think the main, the main reason is that, that we
just have, um.
Extremely interesting varieties.
You know, we have, we have stuffother people, other countries
don't have.
And that's, that's the secret.
You know, we don't, uh,Chardonnay is not a big thing
for us.
Cabernet Sauvignon is also avery small thing for us.
(17:31):
We have great varieties that arejust, first of all, um.
Unique.
And second of all, interestingtoo.
It doesn't help if they're onlyunique and they and the wines
suck.
Yeah.
That's
Mark (17:42):
very different.
Well, I think one of the thingsabout the Austrian wines is, is
how food friendly they are andhow food friendly they are with
foods that.
Are not usually friendly towine, there's gruer, velt,
leaner with, with salads andvegetables.
Happens to be a very good mix.
Francis (17:58):
I wanna talk more with about the specific varieties of
wines and maybe we can tell ourlisteners some things they can
look for out there.
We have a big wine, uh, uh,Austrian selection on our list,
uh, on both our restaurants,but, but there are more and
more.
Affordable Austrian wines outthere.
We'll be talking more with PeterSchlemer Austrian restaurant
critic and wine writer from RIAMagazine, from his home outside
Vienna.
In just a moment, you'relistening to the Restaurant
Guys, Hey, you're back with therestaurant guys.
(18:20):
Mark Pascal and Francis.
Shout of stage left in CatherineLombardi restaurants in downtown
New Brunswick.
Our guest today is Austrian wineexpert and restaurant critic,
Peter Schleimer, who joins usfrom his home in Austria to talk
with us about Austrian wines ingeneral.
You said before the break,Peter, that um, you have things
that other people don't have.
What meaning Austrian winesoffer things that, that other
places don't have.
(18:41):
Like what?
Peter (18:43):
Well, um, our number one grape by, by far in quantity and
often even in quality is, is agrape called Una leaner.
And it is a white grape, um,that produces beautiful wines
with um.
Quite a bit of spice.
(19:04):
And, and the, the, thefascinating thing about this
grape is that it's, is itsversatility.
So you know, you can get winesthat are rather light bodied
that are just, you know, freshand slug them down beautiful
wines.
And you can get extremely ripe,concentrated wines that are.
Full bodied and, and with agreat structure.
(19:25):
So, and some
Francis (19:26):
of, and some of those, those higher end wines really do
last a long time.
I mean, we have a number of themin our cellar.
They
Mark (19:31):
age and age.
Yeah.
Peter (19:32):
Yeah.
They age, they age extremelywell.
I mean, it's, it's amazing.
I've, I've had the, you know,I've been, I'm, I'm the lucky
person because sitting inAustrian, being a wine critic, I
have in fact had.
Wines back to the 1930s.
Mm-hmm.
Um, from this grape and, andthey were from Nikolai Hope in
this case.
And it, it was just, you know, Iwas sitting there.
(19:55):
Oh, I can't believe it.
You know, it, it was so young.
I think
Francis (19:59):
it's, it was the genesis of our friendship is
that when I went to Austria, Iwent with about seven other
American wine buyers in 96, Ibelieve it was, and Peter was
our host, uh, with a person whowas showing us around.
And actually the Austriangovernment had brought us over
and, um.
We tasted some of these oldwines and, and the wine
producing regions of Austriawere occupied, uh, by Germany
and then occupied by by Russia,and a lot of the wines were
(20:21):
stolen.
A lot of these great old wineswere family treasures that were
hidden in some cases thrown intolakes, so they would sink to the
bottom of the lake and bepreserved and then dug up years
after the war.
And these people were so kindto, to open some of these
pre-war bottles for us, and Igot to have them sitting at a
table with Peter so many yearsago, and they're mind boggling
that something would last thatlong.
(20:43):
I mean, do you, did, were therea lot of stories of people who
hid wine from the, the, theNazis and from, and then from
the, um, the Russians as well?
Peter (20:50):
Well, sadly, um, not, not many of the these, uh.
Secret wine depose, um,survived.
Um, the, the Russians werepretty good at, at finding out,
you know, where a new wall hadbeen set up, or a hole had been
dug, and, you know, where thepeople hid their wines and they,
they actually, at that time,they, they went through the
(21:12):
cellars and neither drank itall, or if they couldn't drink
it anymore, they just kinda.
Used their machine guns and,shot at the barrels and, and all
the wine that's incredible waswasted.
Francis (21:22):
So Peter, did you see, is it big news out there that,
um, the Michelin Guide, which isthe, the the preeminent guide or
restaurant guide in in Europehas started to review for the
first time in American City, theMichelin Guide to New York came
out.
Has that made the news overthere?
Peter (21:37):
Um, I've, yes, I've, I've heard about it, yeah.
Francis (21:40):
Um, now just, can you tell us how important the
Michelin Guide is in, in Europe?
Peter (21:45):
Well, the Michelin Guide is certainly, it's, it's.
You could almost say it's, it'sthe, the, the father of all
guides, it, it, it would be themost respected of all guides.
Mark (21:55):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I mean, having traveled throughEurope, even though there are
some other, uh, uh, guides outthere, gilo go, uh, GI Mic.
No Michelin and, uh, go me goois what I was trying to say.
Thanks very much for your help.
You know, mark actually reallyappreciate it.
Gentle, the way to be there forme.
Funny thing is Mark actually
Speaker 5 (22:12):
speaks French.
Mark (22:16):
I just, I just can't speak is the problem.
Not, it has nothing to do withlanguage.
It is, uh, but definitely, I, Imean, Michelin has been there
forever and.
And is the one that everybodylooks to.
Francis (22:26):
It's, it's been described as incorruptible.
Mm-hmm.
And we, we even had that, therewas a book written a about, uh,
which in France is a statement.
Yeah, exactly.
Because everything's corruptiblein France and then the, and the
Michelin reviewers don't even goon strike.
Um, anyway, um.
The Michelin guide just cameout, and here's an interesting
thing in the New York Guide.
Now three stars in the MichelinGuide is the highest honor that
you can get, and it's really tobe a three star restaurant is
(22:48):
incredible.
New York now boasts four threestar restaurants and four two
star restaurants.
That's eight.
The eight top restaurants in NewYork according to the Michelin
Guide.
Which is the preeminentinternational guide to
restaurants.
And one of the two stars, whichmeans one of the top eight
restaurants in New York City, isDanube, which is an Austrian or
Austrian inspired restaurant.
How crazy is that?
How Peter, all that wiener,schnitzel.
(23:10):
I mean, now Peter, you and Ihave eaten at Danube on several
occasions, and I remember atleast the beginnings of most of
those meals.
isn't it odd?
we have three Austrianrestaurants in, in New York that
matter right now.
10 years ago.
I, I I, if you said, where do Igo for Austrian food?
I couldn't have thought of aplace in Europe.
Yes, you could have
Mark (23:27):
Austria.
How about Vienna?
See, we'll see you soon.
Francis (23:31):
So, so what is this, uh, Austrian invasion going on
of, of, uh, American, Americanrestaurant scene?
Peter, what do you think isbehind it?
Peter (23:38):
Well, um, I, I just think, you know, Austria has,
um, over the last two decadescome to realize, you know, its
its own qualities and, and hasstarted to, Bring these
qualities in culinary and, uh,you know, file sense to, to
other countries.
I think, it's a matter of, ofkind of realizing how how good
(24:02):
stuff you have at home and, andthe stuff we have here is, is
really good.
I mean, the food and the, andthe wine.
It is really remarkable.
It's unique and mm-hmm.
And that's, that's why this ishappening to my mind.
Mark (24:13):
And by the way, anybody looking for a great place to
travel and visit, uh, obviouslythe skiing is spectacular in
Austria, but the people areunbelievable.
The countryside is unbelievable.
It, it, it's just that the foodis unbelievable.
It's, it is a great place to goand visit one of my favorite
countries in the world.
Francis (24:30):
The last time I was there with Peter, Peter, you
took me to a church, um, whichis actually in the city of
Vienna, that close to Berg.
Which, uh, actually has beenmaking wine for How many, how
long have they been making winethere, Peter?
Forever.
Right?
Uh, 12th century.
Yeah.
You know, recent newcomers.
Yeah.
Um, but the question number isvery old billing.
They've been making wine.
It's actually in the city limitsof Vienna.
And you can go and purchase winethere.
(24:51):
They have some older vintagesavailable.
And the remarkable thing aboutAustrian wines is, is that they
do age and these older vintagesare often available.
And there was an okay selectionof, of, of older vintages
available in the little shoparound.
And we got to talking to one ofthe people and then I dropped
Peter Schlemer name and theneven older vintages became
available, which I really like.
Um, but which is the only reasonI hang out with you, Peter.
(25:12):
I'm not, um,'cause he's aterrible bore everyone but.
But we went up and, and I took atour of, of the cluster with
Peter and the woman.
And, you know, Germans andAustrians have a, have a
reputation in America being alittle, you know, rigid or terse
sometimes.
And there was a woman who wasgiving the tour and she said
that she showed me a particularpiece of stained glass, which is
(25:33):
one of the oldest pieces ofstained glass in Europe.
And she said something like,they said, now how old is that
piece of glass?
And she said.
That glass is 400 years olderthan your country.
Peter (25:44):
I remember that one.
Yeah.
That was great.
Francis (25:46):
And I thought, and I felt scolded like a school boy
and I, you know, he looked likea school boy at that point, but
they gave me a glass of vetleader and everything was okay.
Um,
Mark (25:57):
yeah, the, the Austrian do loosen up after a couple of
glass of wine, no doubt about,and so
Francis (26:02):
does France do now.
There has been a, a realresurgence, I think an
interesting thing about Austrianwine.
Uh, culture is, there were somescandals that, in a way, the
silver lining to that cloud, tothe cloud of some scandals.
Was that the renaissance of, uh,Austrian wine quality?
What about what happened withthe scandals there, Peter?
Peter (26:21):
Well, um, in short it was, uh, um, it actually, it, it
only, uh, had to do with, with,uh, low quality, low price wines
and, and there was a lot of.
Um, pressure on, on the, on somebig producers to produce, uh,
you know, wines at, at lower andlower price levels, uh, but with
(26:44):
residual sugar and so on.
So some.
People came up with thefantastic idea of putting, uh,
something akin to antifreezeinto which tastes sweet, uh,
into the wines to sweeten themup.
Mark (26:56):
Let's not do that.
Okay.
Peter, can we, can we stop that?
Okay.
Francis (27:00):
So some, some unscrupulous producers put
antifreeze into theirinexpensive wine and they got
found out.
Peter (27:06):
They got found out.
the Austrian press kind of went,you know, ravaged over the whole
thing and, and good, I I wasgonna say good for the Austrian
Mark (27:14):
press.
Can't really blame him, Peter,and then, no,
Peter (27:18):
it was a good thing.
You know, I, for me it was allpositive because we would never
be.
Where we are today if thescandal hadn't.
Mm-hmm.
Well, that's the most
Francis (27:27):
interesting thing.
What happened as a result afterthe scandal?
How did the Austrian wineindustry, I mean, I think that's
why I got invited to go toAustria, you know?
Sure.
On the, on the Austriangovernment.
Sure.
So we would
Mark (27:36):
believe in the wines again,
Francis (27:37):
but what happened as a, as a result of the fallout from
that scandal?
Well,
Peter (27:40):
you know, I mean, exports went probably down to something
like 3% of what they had been.
It was, it was, you know, reallyterrible for, for many growers
and, and you know, I mean, itwas.
99 point 99% of the growers werehonest and never touched this
stuff.
Mm-hmm.
But it was due to, you know, I,I think all in all, it was
something like seven or eightpeople who were put in jail for
(28:03):
this.
So it was really a, you know, atiny number of, of producers.
And, um, the exports literally,you know, went to zero and, and
everybody had a really hardtime.
The Austrian growers didn't,fall down and, and cry over what
had happened.
They just kind of, I don't know.
They were, they wereelectrified.
they tried everything to justreach higher and higher quality
(28:28):
levels and they were verysuccessful.
I, I think the things that havebeen going on in, in Austria, as
I say, were really, reallyremarkable.
I, I've
Mark (28:36):
seen some huge changes in Austria and wine in the last 10
years.
Well, it's, it's no longer justthe top producers that are
making great wine.
Exactly.
There's, there's, there are alot of producers.
Francis (28:44):
Well, I also think there, there had to be a market
shakeout from when your exportsgo down to zero.
Anybody who was weak or who wasunder suspicion at all had to,
had to fall off the, the.
The radar, and if you wanted tosurvive at all, you had to be
great.
(29:23):
Now we've been talking aboutwines.
Peter, let's talk aboutrestaurants.
You're a restaurant critic andactually.
You've taken me reviewingrestaurants, uh, with you, which
is great, especially since yourmagazine paid for my dinner.
Mark (29:33):
Big fun.
Big fun going restaurant,reviewing and having someone
Francis (29:35):
else
Mark (29:35):
pay for
Francis (29:35):
it.
Mark (29:36):
Love it.
That's
Speaker 5 (29:36):
super glad I don't have to do it six nights a week.
No.
Love doing it every once in awhile.
Francis (29:40):
Now we've also, um, we've dined together at Dan U,
which is a restaurant thatreceived two Michelin stars in
New York and the first ever atMichelin Guide in New York.
And, uh, we had some greatmeals.
There is that Austrian food.
Or is that a derivative ofAustrian food?
Peter (29:57):
That's, that's a, that's an interesting question.
That's good.
I'm putting him on the
Francis (30:01):
spot and he's
Peter (30:02):
afraid he says the wrong thing.
Were gonna ask that.
No,
Mark (30:05):
Peter does not want to be banned from Dan.
Peter wants to get areservation.
Peter (30:10):
So tell us.
No, they, they do certainlyhave, have a large variety of,
of really typical Austrian food.
I mean, they have a great Venusschnitzel, for example.
It's really, really good.
It's even, even, I mean, and ifI say this, don't misunderstand,
but if I say it's even really,really good by Austrian
standards, you know, I mean we,we, of course we think that we
(30:31):
make the best food, you know,that is Austrian, right?
In any case.
But, but that is, so they have alarge variety of that.
That stuff.
Um, of course they, they kindof, um, fusion it with, with
some things that are not.
As Austrian.
I've had, for example, I've hadoctopus there and that would not
be a typical Austrian,
Mark (30:50):
not a lot of octopus in Austria.
Peter (30:52):
No, not a lot.
We lost our, we lost our, uh,last seaport in I think 1918.
Mark (30:59):
I was gonna say, those, those mountain rivers, they
don't, they don't produce a lotof octopus for you.
Oh, no.
Francis (31:06):
Well, you know, one of the things that's interesting,
one of the things, Peter, thatwe are, we are wrestling with,
we're opening this.
This Italian Americanrestaurant, and we talk about it
all the time, and people may notrealize this in the United
States, when when you go to arestaurant, you go to a Chinese
restaurant or an Italianrestaurant, those almost never,
if they're good restaurants aretruly Italian.
Because to have a greatrestaurant, you need to source
(31:28):
locally.
And you can bring in some stufffrom abroad, but you need to
deal with the food.
That is where you have it.
You can't ship everything infrom Italy, let's say, and
frankly, if you did, it wouldn'tbe fresh.
Mark (31:37):
Yeah.
We talked, we talked with ourstaff.
We said, listen, importedbuffalo al, you know, is that
really a good thing?
Right, exactly.
Do I really want my, my two weekold shipped, you know, Edel from
Italy, or would
Francis (31:51):
I rather have the edel that I make from local milk in
that tradition?
Right.
Made an hour ago.
You know, and I think that, Ithink that any restaurant in
America faces that.
But you don't have that inAustria.
I mean, you don't have a lot ofChinese restaurants and Italian
restaurants and, and, and thingslike that, or do you.
Peter (32:05):
Well, actually, we, we do, I mean, Austria has a, you
know, strong bondage to Italy.
Always has had, I mean, the, thefavorite country for, for
holidays is Italy, for theAustrian.
So we do love the Italian food.
We, but the, but the thing is,we don't have a lot of high end
Italian and Chinese restaurants,especially Chinese.
(32:25):
Usually it's just, you know,like.
Um, noontime menu stuff that ischeap.
And yeah, I, I gotta
Mark (32:31):
tell you, in my trips to Austria, I almost always avoid
the Chinese restaurants.
Francis (32:35):
I avoid them too.
And that's from a professionalrestaurant critic.
Now, um, you know what's funny,what's interesting is Ireland
is, is where a lot of my familyis from, and most of my cousins
who, who were born in Ireland,have returned to Ireland.
And I visit them quite often.
And there you see.
All sorts of different ethnicrestaurants popping up much like
America because you have allthese expatriates who've
(32:56):
returned and if a local foodculture that's.
Well, not the best in Europe, inIreland.
And um, and I think I see, youknow, Chinese restaurants and
Italian restaurants and so andso forth opening up in Dublin
and even in smaller towns aroundIreland.
And I think that's, that's avery different animal that we
deal with here and they dealwith there that when you have a
native cuisine and you just havethat native cuisine like you do
(33:18):
in Austria, another big thingthat you have in Austria that I
thought was very remarkable.
Is that you, you have atremendous culture of coffee and
whenever we're there, we havecoffee and now you have
Starbucks opening in Vienna.
What are you doing?
Why are you doing that?
Peter (33:36):
Is that going over big?
I'm not, I I was actuallyplanning to burn them down.
No, not true, but it is.
It is.
No, it's, it's.
An anomaly for us.
It's, it's just crazy becauseour coffee culture is, is
amazing as you know, Francis.
Yeah.
And, and you know, the thing inan Austrian, in a typical
(33:57):
Austrian, um, cafe or coffeehouse is that you can.
Go in there.
They have newspaper, they haveall the newspapers.
You can sit in there, you candrink one cup of coffee and sit
in there for two hours.
Mm-hmm.
Reading a newspaper.
It's just great, you know, and,and this is our culture, you
know, um, comfortable.
Um, just layback, uh, you know,enjoy well,
Francis (34:17):
but also the coffee is tremendous.
I mean, the tremendous care putinto coffee and tea in Austria
and I just, I, you know,Starbucks.
Think Starbucks is okay, but Ithink it's very, it was just
shocking to me to see thatStarbucks got any traction at
all that I could possibly
Mark (34:30):
overtake.
Coffee.
Are people going there?
Coffee.
Peter (34:34):
Well, um, tourists go there and some of the young
people, you know, I mean likestudents or something.
Yeah.
Young people
Mark (34:42):
are always looking for a new, new place to hang out.
Something different.
Peter (34:45):
Yeah.
But I mean, Starbucks is not thehip thing.
I mean, honestly.
Excellent.
It's
Mark (34:49):
that's good news to us.
Peter (34:50):
Yeah.
Francis (34:51):
Alright.
Alright, Peter, we only have acouple minutes left, but, but to
be fair to our listeners, I wantto give'em the name of say,
three Austrian producers thatthey can look for, that they're
likely to find and, and, andPeter works, right?
Mark (35:01):
Maybe some, maybe some of the bigger producers that they
can find.
And, and
Francis (35:02):
Peter works as a, as a, as a consolidator for Terry
thesis, who's an and importer ofAustrian and German wines and,
and state bottle champagnes.
And if you see Terry thesis nameon the back label, that's always
a good sign.
But, but Peter, give us threeproducers that, that you would
say that would be most widelyavailable that people could look
for to try something interestingin Austrian to drink.
Peter (35:19):
one would be, emerging, not only emerging a, a star
rocketing estate in, in lowerAustria producing mainly white
wines would be schlosberg.
Um, they make fantastic Lunasthen, uh.
For people who like affablewines with, um, for, just so you
Mark (35:38):
know, for most people in the United States, schlossberg
is harder to say than Barringer.
So we're gonna put
Peter (35:43):
that on our website.
Francis (35:45):
Okay.
Two more producers.
Peter (35:46):
Okay.
Um, for, for lighter affablewines, Walter Glatzer.
Who is right in the vicinity ofVienna.
He makes very good white and redwines.
And for, for sweet wines, I'd,I'd go for something like, uh,
Heidi Schrock.
Mark (36:01):
Heidi Schrock.
Great wines.
Great wines.
Peter (36:04):
And uh, that's, there you have three.
Mark (36:07):
Thanks Peter.
Francis (36:08):
Hey Peter.
Thank you for joining us andtalking to us about all things
Austrian today.
You've been great.
Peter (36:12):
It was a pleasure.
Thanks for being with you.
Francis (36:14):
Okay,
Peter (36:14):
take care.
Mark (36:14):
Thanks
Peter (36:15):
very much Peter.
Okay,
Francis (36:16):
bye-bye.
That was Peter SchleimerAustrian restaurant critic and
wine writer.
And, uh, sort of Bon man, about10.
I'm Francis Shot.
And
Mark (36:23):
I'm Mark Pascal.
We
Francis (36:24):
are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450.
The time is 12 noon.
And now you can download our podcast through iTunes.
Francis (01:34):
And just in case you don't know what much Mark's
talking about with this wholepodcasting thing, uh, it's great
to hear us live on the radio andwe love to keep you company
between 11 and noon.
But you can go to thesepodcasting sites, you can go to
our website and find old showsand listen to them because.
Some of you came in late in thegame and you can get the reruns
at Will.
Good morning, mark.
Good morning, Francis.
Mark (01:52):
How are you this morning?
I'm doing great, man.
Doing great.
Well, doing great.
I'm not in construction anymore.
Francis (01:57):
Yippee.
The word is.
The word is out.
Uh, mark and I have traded inour construction.
Hard hats for actual restaurant,although I did like, like the
Mark (02:06):
little, the cool little light on the top of it.
Francis (02:08):
It's a minor half by the way.
And we weren't mining.
Um, Catherine Lombardirestaurant is now open in
downtown New Brunswick.
Um, the reason we bring this upis not as an advertisement,
though it is a bit of ashameless plug.
But we've really changed fromconstruction mode into
restaurant mode.
And, and running a newrestaurant is very exciting.
Um, and you still, you reallyare a jack of all trades, but a
heck, I like it a heck of a lotbetter than, than, than managing
(02:31):
a construction site Ype, becauseI'm good at this.
I'm actually good at this, butthe things that, that amaze me
now, we've put almost 2 millionoff.
You know what?
It's,
Mark (02:40):
it's not, it's not even that.
I'm, that we're good at it,Francis.
It's that we know how to fix theproblems.
Exactly.
And there are problems.
It's a brand new restaurant.
We have a lot of work to dobefore we get it to where we
wanna go.
Francis (02:50):
I didn't say the restaurant was good yet.
I said we, we've just opened andwe literally, we don't have a
sign that says we're open.
We sort of snuck downstairs lastMonday and open the doors.
Uh, so if you come, so if youreally would like to come out
and have a perfect meal, tryanother restaurant.
Come to Catherine Lombardi,states left is fantastic.
You might another go to anotherrestaurant in town.
Um, Catherine Lombardi will begreat in about a month.
Um, and, uh.
(03:11):
It's, but it's, the food isgreat and the room is beautiful,
but what's, what amazes me is nomatter how well you plan mm-hmm.
If you do an original space, andthis is why I think corporations
can save so much money.
'cause if you have a standardspace that you build a million
times in a million places,right.
And
Mark (03:24):
it's exactly, it's identical in square footage.
And you know, this is four feetfrom this, and this is three
feet from this, and this is twofeet from this.
Francis (03:31):
Both of our restaurants are in a 1925 building.
That's a weird sort oftriangular shape.
I, I've
Mark (03:37):
elected to open a restaurant in a triangle.
If anybody think, thinks thatthat's a good
Francis (03:42):
idea.
It's horrible.
And you get all these weirdangles, these like
Mark (03:46):
shark tooth rooms that slice it, slice it, put it just
for fun.
Just go home and put a diagonalpiece of tape in one of your
rooms and try and rearrange yourfurniture rights.
Figure out where to put thecouch
Francis (03:57):
anyway, and the bookshelf and the television
because you're always lookingoff at 45 degrees.
Anyway, the things that amaze meare.
We spent close to 2 millionbucks.
Right.
And the restaurant is beautiful,but you know, there's that one
place where the light didn't,didn't go right.
We gotta put in two more lights.
You
Mark (04:11):
know what I mean?
The one I love is the, is thelight that just goes to nowhere.
Yeah.
That point's on nothing.
You're shining, you're shiningup the back of a couch.
Francis (04:19):
S we moved something during construction but didn't
move the light.
Yeah, that's gotta change.
The other thing we do is, youknow, you spend 2 million bucks
and.
You put the electrical outletexactly one foot further away
from the appliance you need toplug in.
You know what I mean?
And you spend
Mark (04:34):
2 million like, well, because you spent$2 million, but
you didn't measure the cord onthe espresso machine.
Everything's a heartbreaker.
Yeah, everything's aheartbreaker.
So you, they're tugging on theespresso machine hoping that it
will just
Speaker 5 (04:45):
grow an extra 12 inches.
Francis (04:47):
And my favorite story of all, and the thing about when
you open a restaurant, arestaurant is regulated.
As a general assembly use, whichmeans that the fire codes are
stricter because you have, youknow, in an office building
mm-hmm.
In a, in a, in a private home,you have one set of standards in
an office building that thepublic is going to be in.
You have another set ofstandards in what's called a
general assembly use, which isa, a restaurant or a theater.
(05:08):
You have an even higher level ofstandards and that's, that's
valid, but it's also expensiveand it's also a paint.
And on a second floorrestaurant, and Catherine
Lombardi is on the second floor,it's even higher.
So, um, mark and I got into thefirst argument.
We got it.
We went through this year longproject without one well, FUFU
argument, and it finallyhappened.
Day before yesterday
Mark (05:29):
about whether a set of curtains should be drawn or not
drawn.
We're not saying that thecurtain should have been there
or not been there.
We're not saying
Speaker 5 (05:38):
anything.
You built 10,000 square feet ofrestaurant without, without much
of a cross word Knock down, dragout.
This was like, this was, you
Francis (05:46):
you're an idiot.
You're an idiot.
This was the, it's escalating infront of the staff.
We're gonna go outside and gofor a walk.
Alright, so we finally get donewith this ridiculous argument
and we walked in yesterdaymorning.
Our third partner, Lou wasthere.
He's like, yeah, fire inspectorwas in this morning, have to
take the curtains down, nocurtains here.
Can't have'em.
It's a fire exit.
That was God just telling us tobe.
(06:07):
Yeah.
Yeah.
He, God telling you and me toshut up, uh, I will, I will.
Go ahead.
I'll always remember the, um.
When we opened Old Vines, we rana wine shop for a while.
Mm-hmm.
Which we then, um, the, thedemand for stage left restaurant
became so great that we madedining room, my wine shop was
eaten by my restaurant.
So we, we opened Old Vines andwe had a sign out in front of
(06:27):
the, the storefront that saidOld Vines Wine Shop.
Mm-hmm.
And I always remember I waswalking into work and this was
something that we didn't dowrong, but it was a guy, an old
guy, an old New Brunswick guy.
I see him on the streets everyday, was just looking up at the
sign with his mouth, a escape.
And so I sort of sidled up nextto him and I was looking up at
the sign, my cup of DunkingDonuts coffee in my hand with my
(06:48):
mouth, a gap.
And I said, uh, what you lookingat?
And he said, uh, I can't believeit.
They spelled it wrong.
I said, what do you mean?
He said, old wines, they spelledit wrong.
And you know what he said, oh myGod, I'm gonna go tell'em.
That was old.
(07:08):
It was old wine.
Mark (07:09):
And just to, so everyone gets inside our heads.
Old vines, we believe, tend tomake the greatest grapes.
They make fewer grape, tend tomake the greatest grapes, which
make, make the greatest.
But it wa it wasn't a misspelledsign.
No old one.
So it just a quick story aboutour latest construction foibles.
Yeah.
Uh, we still don't have draftbeer in the new restaurant.
You know, we're open for four orfive days.
(07:30):
Still can't get draft beer inthe new restaurant.
So I'm dealing with this companyand I, so I call, I am like,
listen, you told me you're gonnabe here at 8:00 AM yesterday to,
to, to get in.
And the guy goes, oh, you talkedto Joey C See, I'm Joey.
S.
So, you know, you gotta, youknow, I, I do the best I can
(07:51):
here, but Joey c you talked toJoey C he's the guy who, and so
I've started referring to thesetwo gentlemen as Joey, super sad
and Joey Capol.
'cause they are, because theyare
Speaker 5 (08:01):
two Italian pork products.
See, you can do that'causeyou're Italian.
See me?
I'm wanna get punched
Francis (08:06):
in the face.
Maybe do something like that.
Mark (08:08):
But Joey, Joey s says to me, oh yeah, uh, we, we gotta
install that tomorrow.
Because why?
You do, just why.
Yeah.
Well, Joey C told me you could.
Yeah.
Well, I'm Joey.
S you, you could tell me thedifference between us.
'cause I'm the good looking one.
Um, Joey s Yeah.
(08:30):
I'm talking to you on the phone.
Francis (08:31):
I know what you look like.
You have big gaba.
That was close.
That was almost right.
I gotta, I gotta tell you,there's a place in Jersey
sitting near my house that is,is um, well it's just a place
that's all I'll say.
And it's a place that servesfood or something like it.
And it's called.
Gaba.
Goz Gaba Goul.
G-A-B-A-G-O-O-L-Z.
Mark (08:53):
That's hysterical.
Gaba Goz.
By the way, if anybody has heardthe Sopranos or whatever, say
gaba, go.
That's a, that word starts witha C.
It does start with a z CapaCola.
Francis (09:02):
Yeah.
I'm in all American Italianstuff.
I'm learning.
Operating your family'srestaurant.
I'm, I'm running about like gu,you know?
Yeah.
Starts with a C.
Starts with a C.
Starts with a C.
That's definitely a C.
Sorry.
The other thing I love is theItalians who speak Italian, come
to the restaurant and talk tothe Italian Americans who like.
Imitate the grandmother'sItalian and it's slightly
different.
And you all have arguments abouthow to pronounce stuff.
That's, and
Mark (09:22):
most of us are wrong for, for an
Francis (09:23):
Irishman.
That's really an interestingthing to watch.
All I have to worry about isspelling mistakes.
Anyway, you're listening to therestaurant guys.
We have a guest coming up.
A gentleman named Peter Schlemerwill be joining us by telephone
from Austria to talk to us aboutAustrian food, wine, and the
Michelin Guide and a flock ofbirds that is attacking Austrian
grapes.
My heavens, you're listening tothe Restaurant Guy, Hey, you're
back with the restaurant guys,mark and Francis from Stage Left
and Catherine LombardiRestaurants in downtown New
(09:45):
Brunswick, and today we have aspecial guest joining us.
Peter Schlemer writes for theAustrian publication Aria.
He writes about and reviewswines and also restaurants in
his native Austria and workedwith American importer Terry
Feast, sending some of the.
Finest Austrian wine right hereto us in the United States.
He's our house expert on wineand all things Austrian.
He joins us from his homeoutside Vienna to talk with us
(10:08):
about the burgeoning culinaryand en analogical love affair
between our two countries.
Hi there, Peter.
Welcome back to the show.
Peter, welcome back.
Peter (10:15):
Hello.
Good evening.
Uh, good evening in Austria.
My good.
Your
Francis (10:19):
evening.
Good day here.
Good
Peter (10:20):
morning in, in the States.
It's great to be here with you.
Francis (10:23):
Well, vicariously anyway, or through the, through
the telephone lines.
Yeah.
Hey, Peter, this call, not thatI need a reason to call you, but
in, in the spirit of fulldisclosure, Peter and Mark and I
are are old friends.
Um, but this call came aboutbecause I read, uh, an AP
article, uh, that was based outof Eisenstadt, Austria, and I,
and I wanna read from it.
It says, giants.
Flocks of hungry starlings havedescended upon vineyards in
(10:44):
Eastern Austria in scenesreminiscent of Alfred
Hitchcock's.
The Birds of Vintner told theAustrian media on Wednesday, the
birds come every year in Bergenland, but this year the flocks
are much larger than U usualsaid Vintner.
Walter Kern Bauer.
The birds attack every morning.
It's like the Hitchcock moviequote.
Uh, he was quoted as saying bythe Associated Press,
Mark (11:02):
I read this, I was afraid for your life, Peter.
I love that.
Francis (11:04):
I love this.
It said Kern Barrel was notavailable for comment to the
Associated Press as he was outin the fields dealing with the
birds and employees said, what'sgoing on, Peter?
Peter (11:16):
Well, uh, a short explanation.
I mean, this, this is of course,this is a, a problem we have
every year and it's, um,actually.
Regional problem, which is,typical of the, the way eastern
part of Austria, which where itborders, Hungary, and, um,
that's where you have a warmerclimate.
You have a very large, um,population of various birds and
(11:39):
so you, you have a lot of hungrybirds there too,
Speaker (11:43):
Uhhuh.
And,
Peter (11:44):
and the thing is that, um, in the northern part of the
Boland, the, the province iscalled Boland.
the growers have had theseproblems viciously, you know,
fighting the birds for, formany, many years.
And Mr.
K Bower, who is located in thecenter of, um.
Was kind of not expecting.
(12:05):
you know, he's had theseproblems, but not, not in a, in
a,
Mark (12:08):
not to this degree,
Peter (12:09):
not in a weird way.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And, and this year it's, it'sbeen really bad.
So, so they have been totallysurprised and.
Kind of frightened by the, bythe flocks of birds that
descended over the vineyards.
Mark (12:24):
So Peter, I would, I would expect that a grape fattened
bird is very tasty.
Why is this
Francis (12:29):
still a problem on a stream menus everywhere This
Starling special is, uh, verycheap.
Yeah.
What, what do they do?
I mean, are starlings good eat?
Is there a way they should goout and shoot them?
Peter (12:42):
Um, well that's what they used to do actually.
But, uh, a few years ago theywere, um.
Put under protection.
So, uh, you're in fact notallowed to, to hunt them, which
is, um, a certain problem.
I mean, nowadays they, they usekind of, um, shooting machines,
which kind of just, you know,give a loud bang, uhhuh every
(13:04):
few minutes.
And, but the birds, you know,they get really used to them.
They're not stupid.
They, you know, they love thegrape diet.
They love the sweet grapes
Mark (13:12):
especially.
Yeah.
Francis tried the same thingwith me for a while and didn't
work.
I kept coming back
Francis (13:19):
right
Speaker 5 (13:19):
by
Francis (13:19):
the
Speaker 5 (13:19):
cellar.
Bang.
Francis (13:21):
It worked for like a monk.
What was that?
Ah, well now just so we, we knowwhat kind of stuff we're talking
about.
This isn't.
Silly.
Um, the Starling feasting ongrapes meant to become Bergen
Land Wines have caused damagethis year, estimated between 96
and$120,000 to Kern Bauer.
He said, that's a lot of money.
Peter (13:40):
It is a lot of money.
Um, it's, and, and it's, youknow, it's, it's a battle.
You know, they're, they'refighting a losing battle in
mm-hmm In reality, there areactually, there's very little
you can do.
There's one, um, pretty safemethod, which is, um.
Putting nets over the, the rowsof vines.
So you kind of, but this isextremely work intensive, and
(14:02):
it's of course expensive too.
You have to get these very finemesh nets, nets to put over
every row of vines, you know,and if you have something like,
I don't know, 20 or or 30hectares of wines, it's, it's.
Great deal of work you have toput into, and a
Francis (14:17):
hector a hectare is about 2.2 acres, so that's a lot
Mark (14:20):
of land to cover.
And then while you're, when youhave to tend to your grapes or
do pruning or do anything likethat, you've gotta deal with the
nets as well.
Peter (14:27):
Exactly, yeah.
It, it, it hinders you in yourwork.
And on the other hand.
You know, it, it's, it'sextremely work intensive to put
them up too.
Francis (14:36):
So it's, I I have this vision in my head of Peter
Schlemer stuck in a bird in a,in a burg line vineyard,
Peter (14:40):
Hey, did you see me last week?
Francis (14:44):
Like, being stuck in a fairy ring.
So let, let's broaden theconversation a little bit
though, Peter.
I mean, I know we've been, we'vetalked before, you and one of
the first guests on our show,but, um.
So we can retread that issue.
It's been, uh, we, we, it's beenlong enough in the past.
I've even taken you off thearchives.
We'll get you back on again now.
Um, now we see a lot of Austrianwine in the United States over
the last 10 years or so.
And I first met you when I came,first, went to Austrian, I guess
(15:06):
it was 96.
Would you say
Peter (15:08):
something like 96 or 97, something like that?
Yeah.
Francis (15:11):
Well, now Austrian wine prior to that was sort of
unheard of.
And in the last 10 years it'scome to be, I mean, if you don't
have Austrian wine on your list,you're, you're not cool.
All the cool kids are drinkingAustrian wine.
How did, how did that happen?
How'd you guys invade theAmerican market so quickly and
become, you know, de reger ofany serious wine restaurant?
Peter (15:27):
I think the main, the main reason is that, that we
just have, um.
Extremely interesting varieties.
You know, we have, we have stuffother people, other countries
don't have.
And that's, that's the secret.
You know, we don't, uh,Chardonnay is not a big thing
for us.
Cabernet Sauvignon is also avery small thing for us.
(17:31):
We have great varieties that arejust, first of all, um.
Unique.
And second of all, interestingtoo.
It doesn't help if they're onlyunique and they and the wines
suck.
Yeah.
That's
Mark (17:42):
very different.
Well, I think one of the thingsabout the Austrian wines is, is
how food friendly they are andhow food friendly they are with
foods that.
Are not usually friendly towine, there's gruer, velt,
leaner with, with salads andvegetables.
Happens to be a very good mix.
Francis (17:58):
I wanna talk more with about the specific varieties of
wines and maybe we can tell ourlisteners some things they can
look for out there.
We have a big wine, uh, uh,Austrian selection on our list,
uh, on both our restaurants,but, but there are more and
more.
Affordable Austrian wines outthere.
We'll be talking more with PeterSchlemer Austrian restaurant
critic and wine writer from RIAMagazine, from his home outside
Vienna.
In just a moment, you'relistening to the Restaurant
Guys, Hey, you're back with therestaurant guys.
(18:20):
Mark Pascal and Francis.
Shout of stage left in CatherineLombardi restaurants in downtown
New Brunswick.
Our guest today is Austrian wineexpert and restaurant critic,
Peter Schleimer, who joins usfrom his home in Austria to talk
with us about Austrian wines ingeneral.
You said before the break,Peter, that um, you have things
that other people don't have.
What meaning Austrian winesoffer things that, that other
places don't have.
(18:41):
Like what?
Peter (18:43):
Well, um, our number one grape by, by far in quantity and
often even in quality is, is agrape called Una leaner.
And it is a white grape, um,that produces beautiful wines
with um.
Quite a bit of spice.
(19:04):
And, and the, the, thefascinating thing about this
grape is that it's, is itsversatility.
So you know, you can get winesthat are rather light bodied
that are just, you know, freshand slug them down beautiful
wines.
And you can get extremely ripe,concentrated wines that are.
Full bodied and, and with agreat structure.
(19:25):
So, and some
Francis (19:26):
of, and some of those, those higher end wines really do
last a long time.
I mean, we have a number of themin our cellar.
They
Mark (19:31):
age and age.
Yeah.
Peter (19:32):
Yeah.
They age, they age extremelywell.
I mean, it's, it's amazing.
I've, I've had the, you know,I've been, I'm, I'm the lucky
person because sitting inAustrian, being a wine critic, I
have in fact had.
Wines back to the 1930s.
Mm-hmm.
Um, from this grape and, andthey were from Nikolai Hope in
this case.
And it, it was just, you know, Iwas sitting there.
(19:55):
Oh, I can't believe it.
You know, it, it was so young.
I think
Francis (19:59):
it's, it was the genesis of our friendship is
that when I went to Austria, Iwent with about seven other
American wine buyers in 96, Ibelieve it was, and Peter was
our host, uh, with a person whowas showing us around.
And actually the Austriangovernment had brought us over
and, um.
We tasted some of these oldwines and, and the wine
producing regions of Austriawere occupied, uh, by Germany
and then occupied by by Russia,and a lot of the wines were
(20:21):
stolen.
A lot of these great old wineswere family treasures that were
hidden in some cases thrown intolakes, so they would sink to the
bottom of the lake and bepreserved and then dug up years
after the war.
And these people were so kindto, to open some of these
pre-war bottles for us, and Igot to have them sitting at a
table with Peter so many yearsago, and they're mind boggling
that something would last thatlong.
(20:43):
I mean, do you, did, were therea lot of stories of people who
hid wine from the, the, theNazis and from, and then from
the, um, the Russians as well?
Peter (20:50):
Well, sadly, um, not, not many of the these, uh.
Secret wine depose, um,survived.
Um, the, the Russians werepretty good at, at finding out,
you know, where a new wall hadbeen set up, or a hole had been
dug, and, you know, where thepeople hid their wines and they,
they actually, at that time,they, they went through the
(21:12):
cellars and neither drank itall, or if they couldn't drink
it anymore, they just kinda.
Used their machine guns and,shot at the barrels and, and all
the wine that's incredible waswasted.
Francis (21:22):
So Peter, did you see, is it big news out there that,
um, the Michelin Guide, which isthe, the the preeminent guide or
restaurant guide in in Europehas started to review for the
first time in American City, theMichelin Guide to New York came
out.
Has that made the news overthere?
Peter (21:37):
Um, I've, yes, I've, I've heard about it, yeah.
Francis (21:40):
Um, now just, can you tell us how important the
Michelin Guide is in, in Europe?
Peter (21:45):
Well, the Michelin Guide is certainly, it's, it's.
You could almost say it's, it'sthe, the, the father of all
guides, it, it, it would be themost respected of all guides.
Mark (21:55):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I mean, having traveled throughEurope, even though there are
some other, uh, uh, guides outthere, gilo go, uh, GI Mic.
No Michelin and, uh, go me goois what I was trying to say.
Thanks very much for your help.
You know, mark actually reallyappreciate it.
Gentle, the way to be there forme.
Funny thing is Mark actually
Speaker 5 (22:12):
speaks French.
Mark (22:16):
I just, I just can't speak is the problem.
Not, it has nothing to do withlanguage.
It is, uh, but definitely, I, Imean, Michelin has been there
forever and.
And is the one that everybodylooks to.
Francis (22:26):
It's, it's been described as incorruptible.
Mm-hmm.
And we, we even had that, therewas a book written a about, uh,
which in France is a statement.
Yeah, exactly.
Because everything's corruptiblein France and then the, and the
Michelin reviewers don't even goon strike.
Um, anyway, um.
The Michelin guide just cameout, and here's an interesting
thing in the New York Guide.
Now three stars in the MichelinGuide is the highest honor that
you can get, and it's really tobe a three star restaurant is
(22:48):
incredible.
New York now boasts four threestar restaurants and four two
star restaurants.
That's eight.
The eight top restaurants in NewYork according to the Michelin
Guide.
Which is the preeminentinternational guide to
restaurants.
And one of the two stars, whichmeans one of the top eight
restaurants in New York City, isDanube, which is an Austrian or
Austrian inspired restaurant.
How crazy is that?
How Peter, all that wiener,schnitzel.
(23:10):
I mean, now Peter, you and Ihave eaten at Danube on several
occasions, and I remember atleast the beginnings of most of
those meals.
isn't it odd?
we have three Austrianrestaurants in, in New York that
matter right now.
10 years ago.
I, I I, if you said, where do Igo for Austrian food?
I couldn't have thought of aplace in Europe.
Yes, you could have
Mark (23:27):
Austria.
How about Vienna?
See, we'll see you soon.
Francis (23:31):
So, so what is this, uh, Austrian invasion going on
of, of, uh, American, Americanrestaurant scene?
Peter, what do you think isbehind it?
Peter (23:38):
Well, um, I, I just think, you know, Austria has,
um, over the last two decadescome to realize, you know, its
its own qualities and, and hasstarted to, Bring these
qualities in culinary and, uh,you know, file sense to, to
other countries.
I think, it's a matter of, ofkind of realizing how how good
(24:02):
stuff you have at home and, andthe stuff we have here is, is
really good.
I mean, the food and the, andthe wine.
It is really remarkable.
It's unique and mm-hmm.
And that's, that's why this ishappening to my mind.
Mark (24:13):
And by the way, anybody looking for a great place to
travel and visit, uh, obviouslythe skiing is spectacular in
Austria, but the people areunbelievable.
The countryside is unbelievable.
It, it, it's just that the foodis unbelievable.
It's, it is a great place to goand visit one of my favorite
countries in the world.
Francis (24:30):
The last time I was there with Peter, Peter, you
took me to a church, um, whichis actually in the city of
Vienna, that close to Berg.
Which, uh, actually has beenmaking wine for How many, how
long have they been making winethere, Peter?
Forever.
Right?
Uh, 12th century.
Yeah.
You know, recent newcomers.
Yeah.
Um, but the question number isvery old billing.
They've been making wine.
It's actually in the city limitsof Vienna.
And you can go and purchase winethere.
(24:51):
They have some older vintagesavailable.
And the remarkable thing aboutAustrian wines is, is that they
do age and these older vintagesare often available.
And there was an okay selectionof, of, of older vintages
available in the little shoparound.
And we got to talking to one ofthe people and then I dropped
Peter Schlemer name and theneven older vintages became
available, which I really like.
Um, but which is the only reasonI hang out with you, Peter.
(25:12):
I'm not, um,'cause he's aterrible bore everyone but.
But we went up and, and I took atour of, of the cluster with
Peter and the woman.
And, you know, Germans andAustrians have a, have a
reputation in America being alittle, you know, rigid or terse
sometimes.
And there was a woman who wasgiving the tour and she said
that she showed me a particularpiece of stained glass, which is
(25:33):
one of the oldest pieces ofstained glass in Europe.
And she said something like,they said, now how old is that
piece of glass?
And she said.
That glass is 400 years olderthan your country.
Peter (25:44):
I remember that one.
Yeah.
That was great.
Francis (25:46):
And I thought, and I felt scolded like a school boy
and I, you know, he looked likea school boy at that point, but
they gave me a glass of vetleader and everything was okay.
Um,
Mark (25:57):
yeah, the, the Austrian do loosen up after a couple of
glass of wine, no doubt about,and so
Francis (26:02):
does France do now.
There has been a, a realresurgence, I think an
interesting thing about Austrianwine.
Uh, culture is, there were somescandals that, in a way, the
silver lining to that cloud, tothe cloud of some scandals.
Was that the renaissance of, uh,Austrian wine quality?
What about what happened withthe scandals there, Peter?
Peter (26:21):
Well, um, in short it was, uh, um, it actually, it, it
only, uh, had to do with, with,uh, low quality, low price wines
and, and there was a lot of.
Um, pressure on, on the, on somebig producers to produce, uh,
you know, wines at, at lower andlower price levels, uh, but with
(26:44):
residual sugar and so on.
So some.
People came up with thefantastic idea of putting, uh,
something akin to antifreezeinto which tastes sweet, uh,
into the wines to sweeten themup.
Mark (26:56):
Let's not do that.
Okay.
Peter, can we, can we stop that?
Okay.
Francis (27:00):
So some, some unscrupulous producers put
antifreeze into theirinexpensive wine and they got
found out.
Peter (27:06):
They got found out.
the Austrian press kind of went,you know, ravaged over the whole
thing and, and good, I I wasgonna say good for the Austrian
Mark (27:14):
press.
Can't really blame him, Peter,and then, no,
Peter (27:18):
it was a good thing.
You know, I, for me it was allpositive because we would never
be.
Where we are today if thescandal hadn't.
Mm-hmm.
Well, that's the most
Francis (27:27):
interesting thing.
What happened as a result afterthe scandal?
How did the Austrian wineindustry, I mean, I think that's
why I got invited to go toAustria, you know?
Sure.
On the, on the Austriangovernment.
Sure.
So we would
Mark (27:36):
believe in the wines again,
Francis (27:37):
but what happened as a, as a result of the fallout from
that scandal?
Well,
Peter (27:40):
you know, I mean, exports went probably down to something
like 3% of what they had been.
It was, it was, you know, reallyterrible for, for many growers
and, and you know, I mean, itwas.
99 point 99% of the growers werehonest and never touched this
stuff.
Mm-hmm.
But it was due to, you know, I,I think all in all, it was
something like seven or eightpeople who were put in jail for
(28:03):
this.
So it was really a, you know, atiny number of, of producers.
And, um, the exports literally,you know, went to zero and, and
everybody had a really hardtime.
The Austrian growers didn't,fall down and, and cry over what
had happened.
They just kind of, I don't know.
They were, they wereelectrified.
they tried everything to justreach higher and higher quality
(28:28):
levels and they were verysuccessful.
I, I think the things that havebeen going on in, in Austria, as
I say, were really, reallyremarkable.
I, I've
Mark (28:36):
seen some huge changes in Austria and wine in the last 10
years.
Well, it's, it's no longer justthe top producers that are
making great wine.
Exactly.
There's, there's, there are alot of producers.
Francis (28:44):
Well, I also think there, there had to be a market
shakeout from when your exportsgo down to zero.
Anybody who was weak or who wasunder suspicion at all had to,
had to fall off the, the.
The radar, and if you wanted tosurvive at all, you had to be
great.
(29:23):
Now we've been talking aboutwines.
Peter, let's talk aboutrestaurants.
You're a restaurant critic andactually.
You've taken me reviewingrestaurants, uh, with you, which
is great, especially since yourmagazine paid for my dinner.
Mark (29:33):
Big fun.
Big fun going restaurant,reviewing and having someone
Francis (29:35):
else
Mark (29:35):
pay for
Francis (29:35):
it.
Mark (29:36):
Love it.
That's
Speaker 5 (29:36):
super glad I don't have to do it six nights a week.
No.
Love doing it every once in awhile.
Francis (29:40):
Now we've also, um, we've dined together at Dan U,
which is a restaurant thatreceived two Michelin stars in
New York and the first ever atMichelin Guide in New York.
And, uh, we had some greatmeals.
There is that Austrian food.
Or is that a derivative ofAustrian food?
Peter (29:57):
That's, that's a, that's an interesting question.
That's good.
I'm putting him on the
Francis (30:01):
spot and he's
Peter (30:02):
afraid he says the wrong thing.
Were gonna ask that.
No,
Mark (30:05):
Peter does not want to be banned from Dan.
Peter wants to get areservation.
Peter (30:10):
So tell us.
No, they, they do certainlyhave, have a large variety of,
of really typical Austrian food.
I mean, they have a great Venusschnitzel, for example.
It's really, really good.
It's even, even, I mean, and ifI say this, don't misunderstand,
but if I say it's even really,really good by Austrian
standards, you know, I mean we,we, of course we think that we
(30:31):
make the best food, you know,that is Austrian, right?
In any case.
But, but that is, so they have alarge variety of that.
That stuff.
Um, of course they, they kindof, um, fusion it with, with
some things that are not.
As Austrian.
I've had, for example, I've hadoctopus there and that would not
be a typical Austrian,
Mark (30:50):
not a lot of octopus in Austria.
Peter (30:52):
No, not a lot.
We lost our, we lost our, uh,last seaport in I think 1918.
Mark (30:59):
I was gonna say, those, those mountain rivers, they
don't, they don't produce a lotof octopus for you.
Oh, no.
Francis (31:06):
Well, you know, one of the things that's interesting,
one of the things, Peter, thatwe are, we are wrestling with,
we're opening this.
This Italian Americanrestaurant, and we talk about it
all the time, and people may notrealize this in the United
States, when when you go to arestaurant, you go to a Chinese
restaurant or an Italianrestaurant, those almost never,
if they're good restaurants aretruly Italian.
Because to have a greatrestaurant, you need to source
(31:28):
locally.
And you can bring in some stufffrom abroad, but you need to
deal with the food.
That is where you have it.
You can't ship everything infrom Italy, let's say, and
frankly, if you did, it wouldn'tbe fresh.
Mark (31:37):
Yeah.
We talked, we talked with ourstaff.
We said, listen, importedbuffalo al, you know, is that
really a good thing?
Right, exactly.
Do I really want my, my two weekold shipped, you know, Edel from
Italy, or would
Francis (31:51):
I rather have the edel that I make from local milk in
that tradition?
Right.
Made an hour ago.
You know, and I think that, Ithink that any restaurant in
America faces that.
But you don't have that inAustria.
I mean, you don't have a lot ofChinese restaurants and Italian
restaurants and, and, and thingslike that, or do you.
Peter (32:05):
Well, actually, we, we do, I mean, Austria has a, you
know, strong bondage to Italy.
Always has had, I mean, the, thefavorite country for, for
holidays is Italy, for theAustrian.
So we do love the Italian food.
We, but the, but the thing is,we don't have a lot of high end
Italian and Chinese restaurants,especially Chinese.
(32:25):
Usually it's just, you know,like.
Um, noontime menu stuff that ischeap.
And yeah, I, I gotta
Mark (32:31):
tell you, in my trips to Austria, I almost always avoid
the Chinese restaurants.
Francis (32:35):
I avoid them too.
And that's from a professionalrestaurant critic.
Now, um, you know what's funny,what's interesting is Ireland
is, is where a lot of my familyis from, and most of my cousins
who, who were born in Ireland,have returned to Ireland.
And I visit them quite often.
And there you see.
All sorts of different ethnicrestaurants popping up much like
America because you have allthese expatriates who've
(32:56):
returned and if a local foodculture that's.
Well, not the best in Europe, inIreland.
And um, and I think I see, youknow, Chinese restaurants and
Italian restaurants and so andso forth opening up in Dublin
and even in smaller towns aroundIreland.
And I think that's, that's avery different animal that we
deal with here and they dealwith there that when you have a
native cuisine and you just havethat native cuisine like you do
(33:18):
in Austria, another big thingthat you have in Austria that I
thought was very remarkable.
Is that you, you have atremendous culture of coffee and
whenever we're there, we havecoffee and now you have
Starbucks opening in Vienna.
What are you doing?
Why are you doing that?
Peter (33:36):
Is that going over big?
I'm not, I I was actuallyplanning to burn them down.
No, not true, but it is.
It is.
No, it's, it's.
An anomaly for us.
It's, it's just crazy becauseour coffee culture is, is
amazing as you know, Francis.
Yeah.
And, and you know, the thing inan Austrian, in a typical
(33:57):
Austrian, um, cafe or coffeehouse is that you can.
Go in there.
They have newspaper, they haveall the newspapers.
You can sit in there, you candrink one cup of coffee and sit
in there for two hours.
Mm-hmm.
Reading a newspaper.
It's just great, you know, and,and this is our culture, you
know, um, comfortable.
Um, just layback, uh, you know,enjoy well,
Francis (34:17):
but also the coffee is tremendous.
I mean, the tremendous care putinto coffee and tea in Austria
and I just, I, you know,Starbucks.
Think Starbucks is okay, but Ithink it's very, it was just
shocking to me to see thatStarbucks got any traction at
all that I could possibly
Mark (34:30):
overtake.
Coffee.
Are people going there?
Coffee.
Peter (34:34):
Well, um, tourists go there and some of the young
people, you know, I mean likestudents or something.
Yeah.
Young people
Mark (34:42):
are always looking for a new, new place to hang out.
Something different.
Peter (34:45):
Yeah.
But I mean, Starbucks is not thehip thing.
I mean, honestly.
Excellent.
It's
Mark (34:49):
that's good news to us.
Peter (34:50):
Yeah.
Francis (34:51):
Alright.
Alright, Peter, we only have acouple minutes left, but, but to
be fair to our listeners, I wantto give'em the name of say,
three Austrian producers thatthey can look for, that they're
likely to find and, and, andPeter works, right?
Mark (35:01):
Maybe some, maybe some of the bigger producers that they
can find.
And, and
Francis (35:02):
Peter works as a, as a, as a consolidator for Terry
thesis, who's an and importer ofAustrian and German wines and,
and state bottle champagnes.
And if you see Terry thesis nameon the back label, that's always
a good sign.
But, but Peter, give us threeproducers that, that you would
say that would be most widelyavailable that people could look
for to try something interestingin Austrian to drink.
Peter (35:19):
one would be, emerging, not only emerging a, a star
rocketing estate in, in lowerAustria producing mainly white
wines would be schlosberg.
Um, they make fantastic Lunasthen, uh.
For people who like affablewines with, um, for, just so you
Mark (35:38):
know, for most people in the United States, schlossberg
is harder to say than Barringer.
So we're gonna put
Peter (35:43):
that on our website.
Francis (35:45):
Okay.
Two more producers.
Peter (35:46):
Okay.
Um, for, for lighter affablewines, Walter Glatzer.
Who is right in the vicinity ofVienna.
He makes very good white and redwines.
And for, for sweet wines, I'd,I'd go for something like, uh,
Heidi Schrock.
Mark (36:01):
Heidi Schrock.
Great wines.
Great wines.
Peter (36:04):
And uh, that's, there you have three.
Mark (36:07):
Thanks Peter.
Francis (36:08):
Hey Peter.
Thank you for joining us andtalking to us about all things
Austrian today.
You've been great.
Peter (36:12):
It was a pleasure.
Thanks for being with you.
Francis (36:14):
Okay,
Peter (36:14):
take care.
Mark (36:14):
Thanks
Peter (36:15):
very much Peter.
Okay,
Francis (36:16):
bye-bye.
That was Peter SchleimerAustrian restaurant critic and
wine writer.
And, uh, sort of Bon man, about10.
I'm Francis Shot.
And
Mark (36:23):
I'm Mark Pascal.
We
Francis (36:24):
are the restaurant guys, central Jersey 1450.
The time is 12 noon.
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