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Fine Dining

An Exploration in Taste at the Koch.Campus

by Bettina Bäck

"Powerful, fresh and dense with delicate notes of fresh hay" — "beautiful balance of fat, meat and flavor with full-bodied texture." These are just two of the descriptions cooked up by a circle of experts to define the taste profiles for several different breeds of sheep. The fascinating experiment at the Koch.Campus put the focus squarely on domestic Austrian sheep breeds and the impact of raising them on the high alpine terrain. The study ultimately produced three taste profiles intended to help chefs decide which types of mutton best fit their dishes.

An Exploration in Taste

They sought to find answers through a large-scale taste experiment. Michael Wilhelm arranged for eleven similarly aged young sheep from different breeds to be brought to his meadows in Windachtal in June 2019. There they roamed freely in high alpine terrain stretching up over 2,000 meters, until October 2019, when Wilhelm drove ten of them back to his stall. One of the sheep had not survived its stay in the mountains. The animals spent the winter in the stall, eating hay from the alpine meadows. This period of quiet and the mineral-rich hay, essential oils and spicy alpine herbs lent a firmer texture and delicate aromatics to the quality of the meat.

Documentation

Precise details about the methodology for the experiment, as well as in-depth tasting notes, can be found in the sheep project documentation (German only) from the Koch.Campus. The process was also documented by photographers Helge Kirchberger and Jürgen Schmücking. A collection of the best photos is available here.

About Koch.Campus

The Koch.Campus association brings together more than 30 world-class chefs and roughly the same number of pioneering agricultural and commercial producers, hoteliers and food experts from around Austria. This task force for good taste, currently boasting 58 members, is led by Hans Reisetbauer and Andreas Döllerer. The association promotes greater exchange of knowledge and experience between chefs and producers and joint exploration and development of regional primary products. Secondary goals include encouraging contemporary interpretations of Austrian cuisine and better positioning of domestic Austrian primary products to compete on international markets. Through expert workshops, tastings, lectures, excursions and discussions, members of Koch.Campus enter into dialogue with domestic primary product producers and evaluate their quality potential based on various types and breeds, cultivation and captivity models, age and maturation levels and preparation methods.

Koch.Campus
Sieveringer Straße 27
1190 Vienna

Koch.Campus

Koch.Campus Gruppenfoto
Bettina Bäck von Wine+Partners
Bettina Bäck
Senior Project Manager

Bettina has been with Wine+Partners since 2002, with countless projects domestic and international under her belt. She currently manages sommelier world champion Marc Almert, the culinary think tank Koch.Campus, the Styrian wineries Weingut Muster.Gamlitz, Weingut Langmann and the STK wineries, the culinary concept store Kärntnerei and the Kozlović wine estate in Istria.

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