Gloomy Tuesday

In many mountain areas of Austria I know, Monday seems to be the “dead day,” when most restaurants are closed, resting after busy weekends. In Southern Styria, on the other hand, Tuesday seems to be such a day. Cycling from hill to hill in search of a new place to drink and eat, getting annoyed by occasional rain drops, I almost gave up at one point, since every single Buschenschank was either closed completely or opening much later. The only one available – according to Google Maps – was Schneeberger, well known to me from my visit two years ago. And my memories of its Wohlschweinteller were very very good.

It required a lot of my will not to order that dish again but to go for the “normal” Brettljause. Re-reading my previous review, I realize that even then I had had a doubt in my ability to order anything else. Well, today I was definitely strong, but stupid as well, for the “Bretteljause” of Schneeberger was nowhere as good as the dish it makes from the more aristocratic wooly pigs. On the other hand, it was not at all bad either.

The Schweinsbraten was the absolute highlight, making me wonder why only so few of it was included, compared to, for example, the Hauswurst, which was over-present, All the spreads were good, too, except the liver one, which I had to leave aside because of its too strong taste. The main disappointment was the Speck, which had a “perfumed” taste either from wrongly chosen spices or from being stored for too long in a wrong place. On a positive side, enough “green stuff” was present on the plank to make it look and taste not too heavy. Once again, I appreciated the real strong Styrian horseradish, which is so different from the worn-out stuff one gets closer to Vienna.

The best thing about Schneeberger, however, was and remains its wines. All the ones I tried were of fantastic quality, and I did not mind buying three bottles for home, even realizing the extra weight they were going to add to my backpack. Still, should I have another gloomy Tuesday in Southern Styria in the future and land in Schneeberger again, it is going to be Wohlschwein time.