2014 F.X. Pichler Riesling Loibner Oberhäuser Smaragd
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Tasting notes
Pichler's 2014 Riesling Smaragd Loibner Oberhauser offers a stunningly tropical yet precise and focused bouquet of mango, grapefruit and white nectarines, along with white peach skin flavors. Medium to full-bodied, well concentrated, piquant and with a good phenolic structure, this is a very attractive and aromatic, bone dry Riesling that drinks pretty well at this early stadium.
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Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The sole F. X. Smaragd of its vintage to have been bottled in spring, this is site-typically redolent of apricot, lemon and pungent green herbs. (I should add that the aforementioned combination probably also reflects the so-called “Neustadt Klon” a.k.a. Clone 90 that’s part of the vine mix, whereas every other F. X. Pichler Riesling vineyard is now planted with non-clonal, Wachau-specific vine selections.) Firm in feel but expansive and lusciously juicy, it finishes with smoky, ashen and stony notes allied to glowing piquancy of apricot kernel, zesty citrus, cooling green herbal pungency and saliva-liberating salinity. The upshot is perhaps the most memorably complex in a long line of outstanding F.X. Pichler Rieslings from this deceptively flat but superbly drained, gravelly riverside site.