Showing 1–12 of 16 results
“The 2021 Ried Schütt Loibner Grüner Veltliner Smaragd opens with clear, fresh and bright, ripe as well as elegant stone fruit. The palate is elegant and fresh, while rich and quite creamy, then it turns spicy and saline on the finish. It’s quite powerful but still elegant. Tasted at Schloss Dürnstein, Wachau, in September 2022. Drink: 2022-2042. 92 points”
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (12/22)
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“Knoll’s 2021 Loibner Ried Trum Grüner Veltliner Federspiel opens with a pure, fresh and spicy yet also elegant, intense and aromatic bouquet of ripe white fruits. Full-bodied, intense and savory on the palate, this is a transparent, fresh and stimulating Veltliner with dense and juicy fruit and a spicy, well-structured and finely bitter finish. Good length and complexity. 12.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted in October 2022. Drink: 2023-2047. 92 points”
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (12/22)
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“The 2018 Steiner Riesling Ried Pfaffenberg Selection is pure, fresh and herbal on the pure and flinty nose. On the palate, this is a round, rich and quite powerful Riesling with remarkable intensity, grip and mineral tension. The finish is long and complex and promises good aging potential. Tasted at the domain in September 2019. Drink: 2022-2034. 92 points
2018 is better than we initially thought, if you like to summarize our findings in just one sentence,” says Emmerich Knoll senior, before we tasted through a lineup of the most recent vintage. “In spite of the dry weather and the early harvest, our wines are much less abundant and, due to their low acidity, less broad than, for example, the wines of the 2011 vintage,” which he describes as “above all powerful and broad-shouldered but neither fine nor elegant.” He concluded his commentary by diplomatically saying, “Okay, we wouldn’t have had anything against a little more acidity in 2018, but we don’t miss it either.” He also finds that even Grüner Veltliner doesn’t have phenolic acidity, and he’s not even sure that Riesling will be ahead in 2018. The response in the press and among customers is balanced with regard to this question, he reports. “Certainly, however, nobody would have thought that the Grüner Veltliner would at least be able to stand up to Riesling.” Knoll senior sees 2018 as similar to 2017 and, from the distance, to 2013 and 1992. Yet, unless asked, he does not tend to compare vintages anyway, since the character of the wine is more controlled in vinification today than in the past. In 2017, the weather changed earlier, at the end of August, but in 2018, it changed in September, in the middle of the harvest.
At Knoll, the 2018 harvest began at the beginning of September, and it was “anything but simple, actually rather complicated,” says the senior Knoll. Rot problems had already set in at the end of August, and this made sharp selections necessary and forced rapid processing at temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). At Knoll, too, the hot midday and afternoon hours were omitted. The mash was cooled and then went into fermentation clearer than usual, simply to prevent a too stormy fermentation. Also, the pressing process was much gentler than usual due to the rising pH values. “The harvest was large enough,” says Knoll pragmatically. The maceration times, if they took place at all, were also kept very short, even for the Gelber Muskateller, so as not to compromise its elegance and lightness. Emmy Knoll junior, who finished tasting with me, reported that in warm vintages such as 2018, it was important to slow down ripeness, especially for Grüner Veltliner, through higher yields. He was quite happy with the result, yet I wasn’t. To be honest, I was quite disappointed by Knoll’s Grüner Veltliners, which I found somewhat diluted and not expressive at all. Luckily, I tasted some of the Smaragd wines again in early December in a blind tasting in London, and I liked them much better then. However, I am still not convinced the Grüner Veltliners can compete with the Rieslings here in 2018. The future will reveal if I simply missed the right moment for these wines or if Knoll perhaps harvested too many Veltliner grapes in 2018. The vintage was generous by nature anyway. My favorites of the 2018 vintage are the Riesling Smaragd Ried Schütt (as it is almost all of the time, but especially in warm vintages because the winds coming down from the creek cool the grapes), the Riesling Smaragd Vinothekfüllung and the Loibner Muskateller Smaragd.”
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (03/20)
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“The 2021 Ried Schütt Dürnsteiner Riesling Smaragd offers a clear, pure, intense and elegant nose of ripe and concentrated white-stone fruit aromas intermingled with spicy terroir notes. Full-bodied, tight and purely mineral on the palate, this is a dense and juicy Schütt with a charming intense texture, fine acidity and striking mineral grip and structure. This is a powerful, compact, salty, spicy and persistent Riesling with a dense, aromatic and long-lived finish. 13% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted twice in September and October 2022. Drink: 2023-2050. 94 points“
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (12/22)
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“Black pepper, marjoram and burley tobacco dominate a pungent, smoky, penetrating nose that also harbors intimations of mango as well as muskmelon and honeydew melon. The luscious, glycerol-rich, expansive palate is at once effusively fruity and deeply savory, leading to a mouthwateringly salt-tinged, invigoratingly cress-laced finish displaying remarkable transparency to herbal and mineral nuances. Drinking window: 2018-2029. 94 points
Lucas Pichler reported having had to sidestep or sort out a significant accumulation of botrytis in 2016 due to intermittent rain – chilly October temperatures notwithstanding. This is a phenomenon that only a few other growers have emphasized, though quite likely he is simply being more candid. “We elected to start [picking] with the Riesling,” he explained, “because the Grüner Veltliner has thicker skins and can tolerate a bit more rain without succumbing to rot. The upshot is that we got all of the Riesling picked before there was significant [October] rain, and it’s turned out to be an exceptionally fine Riesling vintage, whereas we ended up having to throw away 25% of the Grüner Veltliner that had developed stem rot.” Another factor seemingly setting apart Weingut F. X. Pichler from other growers I visited in Lower Austria is the sheer duration of picking that Lucas Pichler reported: Nine weeks! Given these just-mentioned factors, it’s no wonder that he recalled the harvest of 2016 itself with considerably less fondness than did most of his fellow growers. But its results are predictably excellent. As usual at this address, some wines are fermented in cask and then racked to tank while others ferment in tank and then spend time in cask; but regardless, Pichler tended to give them even more lees contact this year than in the past, right up until late-summer bottling. (Federspiel and generic Smaragd bottlings are the only ones raised solely in tank and bottled in springtime, as well as the only ones subjected to screwcap closure. For background on this estate and its vineyards, readers should consult the extended introductions to my reports on its 2013 and 2014 collections.)“
David Schildknecht, Vinous (12/18)
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“Fragrant, succulent honeydew melon and white peach are mingled with high-toned almond extract and tinged with Szechuan peppercorn in a texturally polished performance of lusciously sustained fruitiness – reinforced by extract sweetness – yet also one of incisive invigoration. Suggestions of green herbs and a smoldering earthiness lend intrigue to the long finish, while marine minerality enhances its claim on the salivary glands. Drinking window: 2018-2027. 93 points
Lucas Pichler reported having had to sidestep or sort out a significant accumulation of botrytis in 2016 due to intermittent rain – chilly October temperatures notwithstanding. This is a phenomenon that only a few other growers have emphasized, though quite likely he is simply being more candid. “We elected to start [picking] with the Riesling,” he explained, “because the Grüner Veltliner has thicker skins and can tolerate a bit more rain without succumbing to rot. The upshot is that we got all of the Riesling picked before there was significant [October] rain, and it’s turned out to be an exceptionally fine Riesling vintage, whereas we ended up having to throw away 25% of the Grüner Veltliner that had developed stem rot.” Another factor seemingly setting apart Weingut F. X. Pichler from other growers I visited in Lower Austria is the sheer duration of picking that Lucas Pichler reported: Nine weeks! Given these just-mentioned factors, it’s no wonder that he recalled the harvest of 2016 itself with considerably less fondness than did most of his fellow growers. But its results are predictably excellent. As usual at this address, some wines are fermented in cask and then racked to tank while others ferment in tank and then spend time in cask; but regardless, Pichler tended to give them even more lees contact this year than in the past, right up until late-summer bottling. (Federspiel and generic Smaragd bottlings are the only ones raised solely in tank and bottled in springtime, as well as the only ones subjected to screwcap closure. For background on this estate and its vineyards, readers should consult the extended introductions to my reports on its 2013 and 2014 collections.)“
David Schildknecht, Vinous (12/18)
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“The Pichlers’ 2012 Riesling Smaragd Kellerberg delivers an enormous concentration of lusciously rich, sweetly ripe white peach, Persian melon, grapefruit and pineapple, mingled with almond cream, blond tobacco and Szechuan pepper. Bittersweet iris perfume wafts throughout this magnificent performance, while the superbly sustained finish introduces a cyanic intensity of fruit pit whose bitterness is tamed and stimulatingly integrated thanks to sheer generosity of fruit and inner-mouth perfume. There were some shriveled berries here, notes Lucas Pichler, which no doubt contribute to the sense of opulence not to mention of sheer ripeness; yet there is only 13.5% alcohol. Plan to follow this beauty through at least 2025. Drink: 2014-2025. 95 points
“In recent years,” notes Lucas Pichler, “we’ve been harvesting a little earlier in order to depress the alcohol levels a bit,” which in 2012 meant among other things beginning with Gruner Veltliner Federspiel already in the third week of September. After what I had tasted thus far of the vintage, I was amazed to find the Rieslings here in aggregate even finer than the Gruner Veltliners, a pattern that was to be dramatically accentuated at nearby Alzinger. (I did not get chance on my most recent visit to catch-up with Pichlers’ Sauvignon Blanc from this vintage.)”
David Schildknecht, Wine Advocate (212)
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“Cinnamon and Szechuan pepper pungently and memorably accent Pichlers’ 2010 Riesling Smaragd Steinertal; mingle with fresh, juicy purple plum and lime; and join with crushed stone and salt for a tactilely intense, mouth-shakingly invigorating finish. Thanks to its pronounced minerality, high acidity, and mere 13% alcohol, this comes off as leaner than usual for a Pichler Riesling, but what focus and dynamic it projects! I would look for 12-15 years of excitement. Drink: 2011-2026. 95 points
The 2010 vintage in many respects played into Lucas and F.X. Pichler’s hands, inasmuch as their fine sites and vine selections seldom fail to fully ripen, but at the same time, the desire they have voiced since 2008 (and about which I shall write further in an upcoming report on that and the 2009 vintage) to moderate alcohol levels received nature’s considerable cooperation. Picking began already in the first week of October but lasted into mid-November, “and at the end it actually got a bit too warm,” reports Lucas Pichler, “and the sugar levels went almost too high in a couple of instances.” Only the must for Riesling Federspiel was de-acidified “because I had to harvest early to insure low-enough Oechsle,” says Pichler. “But I think the wines should taste as they are, and their acidity is not unripe. With Riesling, one can help out by leaving a few extra grams of residual sugar, and it fits wonderfully,” he observes, alluding to a measure already taken with certain 2008s and 2009s as much to moderate finished alcohol levels as to balance acidity. “I’m really happy to have wines with this year’s lively enticement,” he continues, “after quite a few recent vintages of low acidity. In our terraces, foliage remained on the vines into the middle of November despite frost at lower elevations, which aided in ripening the acids. And this year we gave even our Federspiel wines 6-8 hours of skin contact. The vintage reminds me of 1999 in its ripeness and freedom from botrytis, as well as in its salinity.” While the overall crop level is down significantly as just about everywhere in 2010, it is the Gruner Veltliner that took it on the chin. “We actually had close to a normal crop of Riesling,” explains Pichler, “because there was almost no botrytis this year” whereas in a typical vintage at this estate, noble rot has robbed the characteristically late-harvested Riesling of considerable juice. Incidentally, in this year of the first Pichler Liebenberg Gruner Veltliner (see my description below), Hollerin Riesling ceased its run at this address, as the rented vines reverted back to their owner, Weingut Schmidl. (I did not get chance to taste Pichler’s two Sauvignon Blancs from 2010.).”
David Schildknecht, Wine Advocate (197)
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“The 2019 Ried Achleiten Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Stockkultur opens with a clear, pure, deep and finely aromatic bouquet of ripe fruits (pears) and flinty notes. Powerful and rich on the palate, there is a lot of GV’s power and richness but also a fine tannin structure and extract-sweet and charming fruit with grip and tension on the long finish. Tasted at the domain in June 2021. Drink: 2027-2060. 96 points
At Prager, I could not determine that 2020 would be inferior to the 2019 vintage; on the contrary, the 2020 Smaragd wines fascinated me enormously in their clear, cool, terroir-tinged way. A 38% loss had occurred mainly because of the hail on August 22, although predominantly in the Federspiel or Riesling vineyards. There was no damage in the top vineyards such as Ried Klaus, Achleiten or Zwerithaler. “Interestingly, the vines are in agony for about two weeks after the hail. There was no more growth, no development of ripeness and sugar,” reports Toni Bondenstein. The Veltliner then recovered earlier, while even picking a Riesling Federspiel in October was still a struggle. “Why Riesling reacted more intensively to the hail, I don’t know myself either,” says Bodenstein. Whole clusters were pressed to preserve acidity and to compensate for the lower extract, and compared to 2019, the 2020s were left on their lees longer. In June, however, the 20s in particular showed outstanding early shape.“
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (12/21)
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“From vines planted in 1997 with 110 different genetics on only 0.3 hectares at 380 meters in altitude, the 2018 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein is incredibly clear, fine, fresh and pure on the flinty and delicately fruity nose that is so coolish and fine in its notes of crushed crystalline gneiss rocks and delivers fascinating precision, finesse and mineral freshness! On the palate, this is a rich and juicy, very fine and elegant but also crystalline Veltliner with great purity, lingering salinity and aromatic, well-structured length. This is exciting and one of the greatest Veltliners I have had in my life. It’s not only the terroir that is speaking here but also the genetic variety that gives a sensual complexity that is unrivaled—a result of the whole-bunch pressing and the aging in the less until April 2019 to add the extract that didn’t come from the maceration. Tasted two times at the domain in September 2019. Tasted in September 2019. Drink: 2020-2060. 98 points
“The 2018 vintage is more or less like the 2015 and also the 2017 vintage,” thinks Toni Bodenstein, from Weingut Prager in Weissenkirchen, the western part of the Wachau. Bodenstein presented me a sensational series of Grüner Veltliners, against which the Rieslings were strangely without a chance, although still excellent. “We had rainfall in 2018, though not much, but always at the right time.” According to Bodenstein, photosynthesis functioned continuously until October. “There is virtually no malic acid, but the tartaric acid content of the 2018s is unusually high. Fortunately, there was no assimilation stop during the day in 2018 like [there was] in August 2015; that vintage just barely turned the corner.”
The 2018 vintage was nevertheless quite stressful. There was little moisture in winter and flowering at the end of May and beginning of June was extremely early and finished within a few days, a good two weeks earlier than the average. Pruning the leaf wall is of course an important, albeit very costly, cultural intervention. The later it was cut, the better it was; after all, the aim was to use as little water as possible. The harvest began early and was finished by the end of October instead of mid-November as usual. “The Grüner Veltliner then had hardly any malic acid left, but 90% tartaric acid,” says Bodenstein, “yet with pH levels that were in the upper range due to the stress situations during the summer.” For Grüner Veltliner in 2018, Prager measured 3.3-3.4 pH instead of the usual 3.1. “High pH levels, however, have hardly any reduction potential, so that one has to sulfur more at higher pH values than at low ones.” The Riesling was more like 3.2 instead of 3.1 pH, and it maintained its acidity in 2018, which is about 1-1.5 grams per liter above the Veltliners.
The processing of the grapes in 2018 was also different than usual. “It was important not to harvest at 30 degrees Celsius [86 degrees Fahrenheit], because otherwise the fermentation would have already started in the harvest boxes. We went to the vines early in the morning and stopped picking when it got too hot.” Normally, the grapes at Prager receive a maceration time of up to seven hours. “But in 2018, we preferred a whole-bunch pressing to preserve the acidity. This is reduced by about 1.5 grams per liter during maceration, which could lead to premature oxidation at high pH values. Therefore, we pressed immediately but slowly over four hours and at low pressure (maximum 0.8-0.9 bar). The shortcoming was, of course, that we had less extract. We compensated for this with longer aging on the fine lees. But we had to be careful here too because of the still-high pH levels and possible malolactic fermentation.” Bodenstein kept the Smaragd wines on the fine lees until the third week of April, which is considerably longer than usual.
His 2018s are less characterized by exuberant fruit aromas and pure opulence than they are by depth, structure and complexity. This becomes clearer with the Veltliners, for which I initially had little use when I tasted them from a normal wine glass. Bodenstein offered me a number of alternatives. I chose the huge Zalto Burgundy glass—suddenly, I had completely new wines in the glass, which completely captivated me and had little to do with what is otherwise known from the Wachau. They could have been wines from the Côte Rôtie, so full and complex, so fine and elegant. I did not taste any better Veltliners on the Danube last year than Prager’s brilliant 2018s Wachstum Bodenstein and the two selections from the Ried Achleiten. So intoxicated, I asked for older vintages and promptly tasted a whole series of older Veltliners, which I will have to rethink from now on, at least if they come from Prager, whose Rieslings I have always found great anyway. The vertical of the Wachstum Bodenstein showed impressively how terrific this wine, whose mixture of genetics grows on top of the Achleiten in a rather cooler spot, can be in warm years such as 2018, 2015, 2011 and 2007. In this decade, the wines from vines planted in 1997 have reached a level that is rivaled only by the very best wines in the Wachau and along the Danube River.”
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (03/20)
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“Full bottle just 1,268 g. From a 0.34-ha plot of ungrafted, low-yielding 100-year-old vines planted before the First World War. The vineyard is a ‘near-monopole’ of Prager and a sub-plot of Buschenberg. Prager only started making this as a separate wine from 2015 and Zwerithaler means ‘nestled between the valleys’.
Very pale straw. Nose still very reticent. But great riches on the palate. Like a luscious fruit salad with more than a little cantaloupe melon in it. Very powerful and long with just enough acidity and layers of opulent fruit. Big and bold. This should have quite a long life and would probably stand up to being served with a game dish. The richer end of the Grüner scale! Drink: 2022-2032. 17 points”
Jancis Robinson, JancisRobinson.com (09/22)
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“The 2019 Ried Achleiten Riesling Smaragd is deep, pure and flinty on the concentrated and fruity yet fresh and coolish nose that reveals crushed stone and crystalline as well as concentrated stone fruit aromas. Full-bodied, lush an intense on the palate, this is a rich, dense and crystalline, vibrantly fresh Riesling with a concentrated white peach aroma and a crispy and crunchy tannin structure on the finish. Tasted at the domain in June 2021. Drink: 2021-2050. 96 points
At Prager, I could not determine that 2020 would be inferior to the 2019 vintage; on the contrary, the 2020 Smaragd wines fascinated me enormously in their clear, cool, terroir-tinged way. A 38% loss had occurred mainly because of the hail on August 22, although predominantly in the Federspiel or Riesling vineyards. There was no damage in the top vineyards such as Ried Klaus, Achleiten or Zwerithaler. “Interestingly, the vines are in agony for about two weeks after the hail. There was no more growth, no development of ripeness and sugar,” reports Toni Bondenstein. The Veltliner then recovered earlier, while even picking a Riesling Federspiel in October was still a struggle. “Why Riesling reacted more intensively to the hail, I don’t know myself either,” says Bodenstein. Whole clusters were pressed to preserve acidity and to compensate for the lower extract, and compared to 2019, the 2020s were left on their lees longer. In June, however, the 20s in particular showed outstanding early shape.”
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate (12/21)
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