Zierfandler, the finer of the two white wine grape varieties traditionally associated with Gumpoldskirchen, the dramatically full-bodied, long-lived spicy white wine of the thermenregion district of austria. (The other is rotgipfler.) Plantings had fallen to just 85 ha/210 acres by 2013. It ripens late, as its synonym Spätrot suggests, but keeps its acidity better than Rotgipfler. Unblended, Zierfandler has sufficient nerve to make late-harvest wines with the ability to evolve over years in bottle, but many Zierfandler grapes are blended, and sometimes vinified, with Rotgipfler. The variety, as Cirfandli, is also known in Hungary. dna parentage analysis suggests it may be a natural cross of roter veltliner and a relative of savagnin.
