A few days in Vienna finding time for citrus and tropical plants
Mark your calendars for November 17, Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé
Citrus fruits are complex, endlessly fascinating, and so useful in the kitchen. Around the world, they are a staple ingredient to home cooks and chefs. They also have botanists asking questions such as: is the kumquat a sister of the orange or a distant cousin? Do sweet and bitter oranges share the same heritage?
To consider and answer these and other burning lemony issues, the Austrian Horticultural Society organises an annual citrus festival in the historical orangery of one of Vienna’s finest palaces, Schönbrunn. This event is usually held in mid-May and celebrated its 21st anniversary earlier this year.
The 500-plant citrus collection, including some plants first grown nearly 180 years ago, is owned by the state and managed through the Austrian Federal Gardens agency, the Bundesgarten. Each show is themed, with a recent edition focussed on botanical peculiarities of the genus Citrus and hopes to help clarify some of the many complicated relationships that define this species.
Citrus growers from the Austrian Federal Gardens are on hand to share growing advice. The event is made tangible by plenty of tastings and cooking demos, alongside cookery, gardening and garden art books and magazines available to buy.
Schönbrunn Palace Orangery was commissioned by the widowed Empress Wilhelmine Amalie in the mid-1750s to overwinter her bitter orange Seville plants. A contemporary print held by the city’s Albertina Museum shows the unique structure of this garden, with 344 orange plants arranged in an eight-fold arrangement around a fountain. The number eight was a mysterious and esoteric number at the time.
The Orangery includes a separate Cedrat House to the east, where especially sensitive citrus fruit trees are housed. The Orangery boasts underfloor heating, warming the delicate plants for over 250 years, particularly through the often bitterly cold weather of the winter months.
See you there!
Visit the Austrian Horticultural Society nearer to the time for more information about this fascinating event
Calienna is growing in Vienna, leaf by leaf
Visited and shopped Calienna, a place of jungle leaves and plants. A young Californian/ Austrian couple have created an oasis of calm in the city's busy, fun seventh district. I first read about them in Monocle magazine and was happy to be making a houseplant pilgrimage. It is a magical space, a well-considered concept that brings the vibrancy and light of California to the traditional, intellectual and history-soaked city of Vienna.
The Austrian/ Californian couple initially found history and timing were against them - it was September 2020, bang in the middle of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns. Miri and Christian Cervantes moved to Vienna to open a plant shop. However, they persevered, and now the shop has grown into a cultural hub with a café, gallery and events space, store, curated music nights and a creative studio.
Nurturing plants and the human spirit emotionally and intellectually is a crucial concept behind Calienna. It's about growth, curiosity, and creating interesting lives. As Miriam and Christian say, "We are dedicated to serving our customers and community by inspiring a relationship with nature and introspection through plants, thoughtful objects, books and conversation". Hence, a café and events space was included, which attracts curious customers keen on plants, books, and engaging with others.
With backgrounds in design and marketing agencies, the couple's ambition is "to help increase consciousness and to inspire growth into our everyday lives. We are interested in finding simple ways to reconnect with nature and, therefore with oneself by providing different entry points that individuals can discover for themselves along their own paths, whether through plants, insightful reading and conversation, introspective art, or thoughtfully made products".
Plants are tropical, with thick, green, lustrous leaves that breathe, giving the space a thick, treacly atmosphere of a thriving greenhouse. Cacti and succulents nestled in sand trays, keeping very still and exuding patience, are also sold.
The store is one of Vienna's younger, hipper districts close to various university buildings, vintage clothes shops and shops selling international street food.
If you live or find yourself in Vienna, visit the store at Neubaugasse 68 or through the website calienna.com
Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé
November 19th … Save the date! Every year the Beaujolais wine region in eastern France and, more specifically, the town of Beaujeu celebrate the release of the year's new batch of the world-famous Beaujolais Nouveau wine. The annual release of this wine has been celebrated for over 200 years. Still, it was in the heady days in the decades after the 1970s when clever marketing made this a globally exciting event. British wine merchants used sports cars to race a few boxes of wine to serve to a partying crowd. The first to arrive was celebrated in breathless newspaper articles. While the day doesn't have the excitement of the 1980s heydays, it's still a fun occasion to celebrate.
Beaujolais Nouveau is made with hand-picked purply-blue coloured Gamay grape and released in the same year it was harvested (hence the name 'Nouveau'). It takes just 6-8 weeks for the grapes to be harvested and bottled, so the finished wine should be drunk quickly. Most of the vintage should be consumed by the following May, although in outstanding years, such as 2000, the wine has a slightly longer shelf life.
Also, there are many other good wines from the region, including the more mature Beaujolais-Villages and Fleurie, with deeper, more complex flavours and shelf lives.
Beaujolais Nouveau is one of the few wines produced, bottled and released in a matter of weeks. This is possible due to a wine-making technique known as carbonic maceration. The wine is red, bright, fruity and usually (quite unusually) served chilled.
The vintners of Beaujolais release their produce at exactly 12:01am on the third Thursday of November, an occasion marked with live music, wine tastings, fireworks and all-night festivities.
There are dozens of vineyards producing this wine across Beaujolais, home to over 4,000 vineyards. With over 120 different festivals held across the region around launch time, including a 12-variety tasting competition in which the winner takes home their weight in wine! It's an exciting place to be in November.
How to drink Beaujolais Nouveau
Beaujolais Nouveau and Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau wines are best enjoyed at 12°C, the optimal temperature for a perfect tasting.
While the more mature wines Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages should be served, after nouveau wines, at 13/14°C, a degree that pays tribute to the aromatic wealth of the Gamay grape.
The Beaujolais Crus are suited to serving at around 16°C. This may be lowered slightly, to about 15°C, for a one or two-year-old Cru. Conversely, the bottle may be poured a tinge warmer for a wine three to five years old (17°C is perfectly acceptable).
Like any living, tasty product, Beaujolais wines should be handled carefully. Though they like fresh temperatures, it's better to avoid using the fridge and its 4°C. This temperature kills flavour. Of course, there's nothing better than a cellar or a cool place to keep your wine. The ideal thing to do is to chambré (bring to room temperature) your bottles of wine for an hour before the meal. Thus, you don't serve the wine at too low a temperature. Decanting wine or serving it by the glass tends to warm it further.
Source: beaujolais.com
Bruce McMichael
Writer, Podcaster, Educator
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