If ever you're hiking on the beautiful Kitzbüheler Horn in the Austrian Alps, stop at the Angerer Alm, a special old eaterie – and visit the wine cellar, writes JOHN COLLINS
ANYONE WHO has ever skied or hiked in the Alps is familiar with the Alpine huts that dot the slopes. They are a perfect refuge for a warm Glühwein when skiing or a hearty lunch and a rest for weary legs during the summer.
After a recent morning’s hiking on the Kitzbüheler Horn, the 1,996m peak above the town of St Johann in Austria’s Tyrol, the 200-year-old Angerer Alm seemed like the ideal rustic tavern to refuel.
Little things suggested we’d stumbled on more than an upmarket snack bar. It was a Wednesday in early August, and though we had encountered few people further up the mountain, nearly every table on the exterior terrace was occupied. As we soaked up the dramatic views of the Wilder Kaiser mountain range, the champagne boxes used as plant pots, the ceramic napkin holders and cute wicker basket seats indicated we had found something special.
The arrival of owner Annemarie Foidl, in traditional Tyrolean dress, along with a magnificent spread of cold meats, cheeses and spreads washed down with sparkling elderflower drink, confirmed we had found something special. She answered all our party’s questions with an enthusiasm that showed we were dealing with someone with a love of food, drink and hospitality.
Annemarie has been running the Angerer Alm since 1989. Her family needed extra land to graze their cows on during the summer. “My brothers got the land and I got a restaurant,” she smiles. The arrangement has worked out well for her. When not running her busy restaurant, Annemarie is president of the Austrian association of sommeliers and is considered an international expert on wine.
But food is equally important at the Angerer Alm, where Annemarie still likes to spend time in the kitchen. She says her philosophy is to provide simple traditional Tyrolean food during the day as her contribution to preserving the region’s food culture. At night she provides gourmet tasting menus, primarily for overnight guests, which draw on local seasonal ingredients, including the many herbs and edible wild flowers that grow on the surrounding hillside and in the adjacent herb garden.
The icing on the cake was Annemarie’s invitation to visit her wine cellar. We descend a steep wooden stairwell to cool candlelit tunnels that were once the 18th-century farmhouse’s stables and are now lined with an enviable selection of dusty wine bottles. Around a couple of corners and we enter a candlelit wine lover’s paradise where we crowd around a table for a wine tasting with Annemarie.
No question is too trivial as she explains how she matches her vast selection of wines with her customers’ preferences. Although the evening set menu is €55, the bulk of her diners stay overnight, where €99 gets you a five-course set menu and accommodation with some of the finest views in the region.
It might seem a little ungrateful to bring it up when a guest in the cellar of Austria’s top sommelier, but I had to ask how the country’s producers recovered from the “antifreeze scandal” of 1985, when it was revealed some unscrupulous wine merchants had diluted local wines with diethylene glycol, an ingredient in antifreeze. Annemarie takes the question in her stride. Austrian producers retreated from exports and focused on getting quality right. The domestic wines we sampled, ranging from Baronfrizzante, a fizzy pear wine, to a full-bodied Zweigelt Reserve from the Schwarz vineyard, backed up that claim.
Annemarie’s wine cellar is not just stocked with the best that Austrian vineyards have to offer. Her oldest bottle is a Madeira from 1795, which she plans to drink when she becomes a grandmother. She also has a Massandra from the Russian tsar’s wine cellar and all the Bordeaux Premier Grand Crus.
In Irish minds, Austria is synonymous with ski holidays, but the cable cars are open during the summer to give easy access to the mountains. A hike to the summit of the Kitzbühler Horn would be the perfect appetiser for lunch or dinner at the Angerer Alm. Just don’t be surprised if any more strenuous plans you had for the afternoon get shelved. Ours were.
- Angerer Alm, St Johann in Tirol, angereralm.at
- Topflight has stay and explore tours to Austria during the summer and can also organise tailormade holidays in St Johann in Tirol.