The lovely wines from Esterházy
Viennese friends introduced me a decade ago to the great Estoras vineyards owned by the Princes Esterházy as making some of the greatest wines of central Europe and the former Austro-Hungarian empire. Haydn was the Esterházys court composer for 30 years and he liked the Estoras wines so much he requested part of his salary to be paid with them; they were favourites too of Goethe and Marie Antoinettes mother the Empress Maria Theresa. With such endorsements it was hard not to be interested.