Nikolaihof Im Weingebirge Smaragd Gruner Veltliner 2013
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Parker
Robert
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Very clear and fresh, with a ripe honeydew and cool, flinty mineral aroma with hints of smoked bacon on the nose, the 2013 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Im Weingebirge is full-bodied, very dense, yet pure and well balanced. Highly elegant on the palate, this is a deep, rich, tension-filled and highly complex Gruner with a long and expressive mineral finish. Powerful and slightly bitter when poured directly from the bottle, this wine benefits a lot from aeration and indicates a great aging potential.
Rating: 93+
Other Vintages
2017-
Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
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Parker
Robert
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Suckling
James
Fun to say and delightfully easy to drink, Grüner Veltliner calls Austria its homeland. While some easily quaffable Grüners come in a one-liter—a convenient size—many high caliber single vineyard bottlings can benefit from cellar aging. Somm Secret—About 75% of the world’s Grüner Veltliner comes from Austria but the variety is gaining ground in other countries, namely Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States.
As Austria’s most prestigious wine growing region, the landscape of the Wachau is—not surprisingly—one of its most dramatic. Millions of years ago, the Danube River chiseled its way through the earth, creating steep terraces of decomposed volcanic and metamorphic rock. Harsh Ice Age winds brought deposits of ancient glacial dust and loess to the terrace’s eastern faces. Today these steep surfaces of nutrient-poor and fast draining soil are home to some of Austria’s very best sites for both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling.
Wachau is small, comprising a mere three percent of Austria’s vine surface and, considering relatively low yields, represents a miniscule proportion of total wine production. Diurnal temperature shifts in Wachau facilitate great balance of sugar and phenolic ripeness in its grapes. At night cold air from the Alps and forests in the northwest displace warm afternoon air, which gets sucked upstream along the Danube.
Its sites are actually so varied and distinct that more emphasis is going into vineyard-designated offerings even despite grape variety. Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are most prominent, but the region produces Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Zweigelt among other local variants.