2016 Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Honivogl Smaragd

Sweetly ripe fruit is signaled on the nose by mango, pear and a Riesling-like note of piquantly pit-tinged apricot. But there is plenty of mineral action on the palate, in the form of smoky struck flint, alkali, mouthwatering salinity and a suffusion of crushed stone. Then comes a finish of rare, resonantly vibratory intensity that adds beet earthiness as well as incisive nips of white pepper, and in which neither the lusciously ripe fruit nor the mineral elements want to be caught giving up. Franz Hirtzberger junior notes that, as usual for this bottling, a small amount of botrytis was allowed in the mix. But interestingly, this bottling is in fact marginally lower in alcohol than its immediate Smaragd siblings.