Austria is January's Featured Country

In the International spirit that is Rotary, each Etown Rotary board meeting this year will feature a different country by way of a wine tasting. According to the French proverb, " In water one sees one's own face; But in wine one beholds the heart of another." Our meeting on Tuesday will highlight Austria.

Rotary has been established for a great many years in Austria. Austria traditionally was the border between East and West. It was therefore not unexpected that after the collapse of Communism, Austria should play a major role in establishing, encouraging, and support for Rotary which was establishing itself in the countries adjacent to it or in close proximity to it.

Both District 1910 & 1920 are heavily involved in Rotary in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Croatia.

Our January tasting will be Wolfgang Gru-Vee (Gruner Veltliner) . Vinted at Wolfgang's award-winning wine estates on the shores of the Neusiedlersee in the heart of Austria's Burgenland province, Vienna Gruner-Veltliner (or "Gru-Vee") Wine is a perfect example of Austria's best-loved white wine varietal. Neither sweet nor exceedingly dry, Gruner Veltliner wines are by far Austria's most popular whites; as a result, nearly all of the grape's annual yield is consumed domestically in Austria. The shoreline of middle Europe's only steppe lake provides an ideal climate for Wolfgang's cultivation of these powerful wines.

Vienna is made with only the finest hand-selected grapes from a single Holle ("warm weather") vineyard. The wine is aged for six months in new oak barrels to achieve the famous taste upon which Wolfgang has built its reputation.