2012 Riesling Unendlich Smaragd
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Representing roughly 75% Kellerberg, 20% Hollerin and 5% Steinertal, and weighing-in at 14% alcohol, the Pichler 2012 Riesling Smaragd Unendlich projects lusciously ripe, brown-spiced peach mingled with both the sweet marzipan-like and the bitterly cyanic sides of almond, as well as with pistachio extract, smoky black tea, and a sweet-saline, iodine-tinged, salivary gland-milking savor akin to lobster shell reduction. Living up to its name while managing to convey animation as well as soothing richness, this reveals a subtly different emphasis with each compulsive sip and wave of finishing flavor. A beautiful tribute to its vintage and cepage, this should reward attention through at least 2028. “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.) Importer: Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0700
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David Schildknecht, Vinous
David Schildknecht, Wine Advocate
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Representing roughly 75% Kellerberg, 20% Hollerin and 5% Steinertal, and weighing-in at 14% alcohol, the Pichler 2012 Riesling Smaragd Unendlich projects lusciously ripe, brown-spiced peach mingled with both the sweet marzipan-like and the bitterly cyanic sides of almond, as well as with pistachio extract, smoky black tea, and a sweet-saline, iodine-tinged, salivary gland-milking savor akin to lobster shell reduction. Living up to its name while managing to convey animation as well as soothing richness, this reveals a subtly different emphasis with each compulsive sip and wave of finishing flavor. A beautiful tribute to its vintage and cepage, this should reward attention through at least 2028. ||“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.) Wine Advocate.April, 2014