Blauensteiner is a known place in an unknown village. I was unlucky enough to arrive one hour before the opening and bumped into a local old man on a bicycle who first questioned me on what the hell was I doing walking around with a camera, then where I live, then whether I had a husband (a rather weird question that took me a while to understand, me being a man) and I don’t know what else until I mentioned Blauensteiner. At which point he said it was a good place to eat and drink and, fortunately, retreated.
Well, it is a good place, I must admit. The wine (Riesling of 2012) was absolutely brilliant, and the Heuriger itself is clean, bright and not too packed. As for the Brettljause (or, possibly, the Hauerplatte – I don’t remember how they called it, but I asked for a Brettlause at any rate), it was a perfectly designed product, with nothing to complain about, but also nothing to report as extraordinary.
It is a meat-heavy plate, with only a couple of slices of tasteless cheese present (I don’t count the rather welcome goat cheese from the salad) and some above-average Liptauer. Everything was thinly cut, which was more than welcome with regard to the blood sausage. For one time, it was not dominating the plate, and the liver spread (the other ingredient I generally avoid) did not taste much of liver. Unusually, there was some Leberkäse present, as well as a sausage with big cheese bits inside, which I only saw in a supermarket before. Still, I could easily believe that all of the ingredients were local produce, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, especially the salty ham.
Unlike at some other places, this Brettljause was well-balanced: there was plenty of fresh bread, the horseradish did not require careful portioning, and the “extras” such as eggs and onions were not forgotten. Still, Blauensteiner left a feeling that it could have been better, had it not followed the rules by the book – a bit less perfection, a few thicker slices, some special sausage to make itself different – but even the way it is, this Heuriger is a good address for Brettljause enthusiasts.
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