2012 Riesling Vinothek Smaragd

There is an aura of sweetness – in aroma as well as on the palate – to the Knoll 2012 Riesling Smaragd Vinothekfullung that sets it apart from other Rieslings in this collection. Ripe peach and kumquat incorporate the piquancy of their pit and rind, then join brown spices on a glossy, oily, slippery-rich palate before finishing with bittersweet persistence augmented and tempered by saliva-liberating, prolonging salinity. “The basis for this,” explains Knoll Sr., “is a parcel high-up in the Loibenberg which we usually pick for Federspiel or even Steinfeder. But while other Riesling parcels didn’t gain much after a certain point, this one ended up with the highest must weight of all. Mind you, it was picked rather late and with a bit of botrytis.” I suspect – its designation as “vinotec bottling” notwithstanding – that this will be best enjoyed by 2018. Circumstances conspired for the Knolls to harvest a good-sized 2012 crop, all of which was brought in by November 8 (some parcels of Gruner Veltliner being almost as late as the last Riesling). “The Gruner Veltliner kept accumulating sugar,” reports Emmerich Knoll Sr., echoing comments from other growers, “whereas Riesling remained at almost the same level from the mid to late October, and we took a pause from picking it before coming back at the end.” A new cellar facility has made it easier to perpetuate and even to expand the applicable range of this estate’s tradition of bottling their best wines only at summer’s end. Importer: Circo Vino, Tucson, AZ; tel. (417) 732-4200