Winemaker Notes
Prager's stylistic signature is that of aromatic complexity coupled with power and tension. High-density planting and long hang times ensure ripe fruit flavors and concentration, yet allowing leaves to shade the fruit lend vibrant aromatics of grasses, herbs, and wildflowers. Minerality is a constant feature of any Prager wine.
With minimum alcohol of 12.5%, Grüner Veltliner Smaragd is a robust and full-bodied dry white wine. Its intensity of flavor and ripeness of fruit make it ideal with high-integrity ingredients such as seared white fish or sautéed spring vegetables. Grüner Veltliner is a classic accompaniment to Wiener Schnitzel.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A very elegant and silky gruner veltliner with a wealth of white peach, white flower, lime and wild herb aromas and flavors. The palate is medium-bodied, sleek and concentrated. So cool and refined, the power deftly underplayed from the delicate entry to the crystalline finish.
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Vinous
The 2023 Grüner Veltliner Ried Achleiten Smaragd is one of three wines Bodensteiner makes from this site. This wine is picked on either side of the Achleiten Tor, across twenty terraces each, on a mix of gneiss, Alpine deposits and amphibolite from vines planted in the 1950s. The shy nose gives a touch of citrus, slightly obscured by gently stony smoke. The palate is immediately graceful, slender and almost bony. The fine structure is clothed in translucent tangerine flavors, is juicy and friendly but graceful, and has terrific zestiness. Subtle spice on the nose only comes with more air. The 2023 is fine but also mild. (Dry)
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Wine Spectator
A spicy, lively white, with a plush core of orchard fruit invigorated with white pepper, savory spices and zesty radish. An herbal thread weaves through alongside elderflower and finely crushed stone elements. The energy keeps pace through the silky, well-meshed finish. A substantial and seriously enjoyable version. Drink now through 2035.
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.