Winemaker Notes
Pair with all types of starters, seafood, marinated, smoked or grilled fish, fried chicken or Schnitzel; white meats, a good alternative to red wine in combination with roast fat duck; matches with all sorts of Pan Asian cuisine.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Riesling Ried Steinmassl 1ÖTW shows clear, reduced fruit but a dense nose with a fine, mineral, cool spiciness. It is initially mouthwatering on the palate, then drying. This is still a strict, stringent, very firm, compact Riesling from the primary rock, but it is also fine and with very good potential. It is persistently salty and spicy. This is not a Riesling for now, but for 10 years from now.
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Vinous
The 2022 Riesling Steinmassl was harvested on paragneiss. It is a picture of absolute clarity—of stone and rock expressed in citrus juiciness, with just a little concession to stone fruit. This is absolutely mineral, juicy, tight and certainly bright, with the promise of more generosity in the future. Citrus depth, Reine Claude plum juiciness, slenderness, vivid intent and thrilling incisiveness mark this wine. (Bone-dry)
Riesling possesses a remarkable ability to reflect the character of wherever it is grown while still maintaining its identity. A regal variety of incredible purity and precision, this versatile grape can be just as enjoyable dry or sweet, young or old, still or sparkling and can age longer than nearly any other white variety. Somm Secret—Given how difficult it is to discern the level of sweetness in a Riesling from the label, here are some clues to find the dry ones. First, look for the world “trocken.” (“Halbtrocken” or “feinherb” mean off-dry.) Also a higher abv usually indicates a drier Riesling.
Climbing north and slightly east of the Kremstal region, Kamptal has very little vineyard area bordering the Danube River (unlike Wachau and Kremstal, whose vineyards run along it). The region takes its name from the river called Kamp, which traverses it north and south. Kamptal’s densely planted vineyards represent eight percent of Austria’s total.
The area experiences wide diurnal temperature variations like the Wachau but with less rain and more frost. Its vast geologic diversity makes it suitable for various experimentations with other varieties besides Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, St. Laurent and Zweigelt.
But the region is probably most noted for the beautiful and expansive terraced Heiligenstein, arguably one of the world’s top Riesling sites, as well as some of Austria’s most extraordinary Grüner Veltliner vineyards. Kamptal’s soils, which are mostly loess and sand with some gravel and rocks, make it suitable for Grüner Veltliner, so much so that actually half of the zone is planted to that grape.