The Wine Rebellion

Review

Meat loaf instead of flowers

Three years ago, the young Carinthian sommelier Felix Neubauer opened his small wine shop called The Wine Rebellion on Ruth-Klüger-Platz, which wasn't called that back then: organic and biodynamic wines from small, individual wineries with a great philosophy. And when the charming, out-of-date flower shop Raphacla de' Martin closed down next door last year, Neubauer and Timo Muliar, who had joined the business in the meantime, took over. Now, of course, you could say: Oida, isn't Bobo-Town getting a bit tired of hip natural wine bars? And the answer is: No, not really. Because they are not combed according to a single line, but individuality plays an essential role in this form of gastronomy, a counter-model to the unbearably standardized scene gastronomy, so to speak. The interior of the bar will not necessarily win a design prize, it looks a bit provisional. The bar garden is great, with the small caveat that Felix Neubauer put old church pews in there - original, but comfortable is different. Never mind, because firstly, the young man has some really great wines on his menu, bottles that he has been saving for years for the right moment, the more experimental the better. And secondly, he reactivated his old buddy Florian Schagerl, who used to work at Mraz & Sohn and Aend, but then switched to catering for a youth education center. And lo and behold: the challenge of creating great food to go with exciting wines using a toast grill and an induction plate appealed to the man, serving things like a grilled cheese sandwich in Sando style, filled with two different cheeses and early cabbage, served with a chilli kimchi mayonnaise - I can't remember the last time I had such great cheese toast (€9). Or strips of salmon trout, braided into a wreath and briefly fried with wood sorrel, horseradish and delicate beurre blanc, great (€ 12).
Or a bread called fish toast - toast with lots of butter, plenty of first-class canned sardine and lots of mustard leaf salad on top (€ 9) - and as a highlight: sour Mangalitza liver cheese, sliced wafer-thin, with pumpkin seed oil and a little vinegar and micrometer-fine sliced onion on top (€ 10). Can you drink Sicilian sparkling wine (€ 11) with it? Sure, you should, and the various Neubauer natural wine bars are well aware of their numbers. But they are not going to war with each other; on the contrary, joint campaigns are reportedly already being planned. Summary: Yet another natural wine bar, and yet again a little different from the others. With great wines and cheese toast galore.

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