One of the interesting developments in Austria over the past few years has been the rise in interest of field blends as an alternative to those made in the cellar. The latter, often called a cuvée, became the norm in Bordeaux after phylloxera and has been the practice adopted in much of the New World, at least when the emphasis was not on single varietals. Its proponents like the fact that you pick each bunch of grapes at optimum maturity, but they are beginning to realise that different levels of ripeness actually add to the complexity of a wine, which is why numerous estates are now harvesting the same site three or more times in order to provide a touch of what a field blend has naturally. The practice probably began as an insurance policy. Having ten or twelve different varieties in the vineyard meant that natural calamities, be they frost, rains or disease, were unlikely to take down the whole lot. Twelve producers from Vienna, which pioneered this renaissance, showed their wines at VieVinum on Sunday. My favourite was a 2002 Nussberg 'Old Vines' from Fritz Wieninger, who many see as the region's leading estate. Comments