La Loupe St. Anton, St. Christoph & Stuben am Arlberg No. 4

KARL-HEINZ PALE’S
WORDRAP
Red, white or rosé? Red.
The magic of a good wine is …
enjoying an aged wine at the right time.
In St. Christoph I feel … extremely good.
What I enjoy most is … cigar and
red wine in front of an open fire.
I would one day like to stay in this hotel:
I haven’t found one yet.
My most important tool at work:
Cigar cutter and corkscrew.
for analysis. Turns out that the ageing process
in the large bottles takes place much more slowly
and gently than in small ones. As a result the
taste difference was so big they could’ve been
two different types. So yes, the bottle makes a
huge difference. In terms of storage you can say
that the colder the cellar, the more slowly the
wines will age. This knowledge is particularly
important for old wines. Some people even store
really old wines in the fridge. When a wine has
“gone off ” it’s become undrinkable. The colour
becomes brownish, the water edge at the top of
the bottle becomes transparent, the tannins are
gone. Finding the right point in time to open a
well-aged bottle of Bordeaux is an art in itself.
L.L. You have to interpret your products, evaluate them
perfectly. How can we imagine such a sales talk?
K.P. Well the guests usually inform themselves beforehand, what
is the wine like, what’s its score, what is the approximate price.
And particularly since the guests are increasingly well informed
we sommeliers have to constantly keep our knowledge up to date.
I personally prefer to stay at the background and not steal my
staff ’s joy in selling. When the moment comes when the sale of
a precious wine is finalised I like to enter the scene. I’ve known
about 80 percent of the guests that drink the very expensive wines
for years. When I sell these wines I try to be discreet and not talk
about the prices directly. I prefer using car makes as an analogy.
I’m standing in the wine cellar and I explain: “Here we’ve got
an Audi A8, this is the Rolls Royce and this is the Ferrari. And if
someone decides to have a small Landrover, that’s fine by me.
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L.L. How often do you go on “wine journeys”? And what is
your favourite region?
K.P. Usually about twice a year. This year I’ve found the time
to do four trips that took me to the Bordeaux region, the Rhône
region, Wachau and Tuscany. In our First Austrian Sommelier
Club which was founded in 1982 the restaurant owners go on
wine journeys together with the sommelier. As a result one is