Winemaker Notes
Austrian Riesling is often defined by elevated levels of dry extract thanks to a lengthy ripening period and freshness due to dramatic temperature swings between day and night. Wachstum Bodenstein’s high elevation, bordering the forest at the top of the mountain, produces one of Prager’s most mineral and finessed Rieslings.
Riesling’s high acidity makes it one of the most versatile wines at the table. Riesling can be used to cut the fattiness of foods such as pork or sausages and can tame some saltiness. Conversely, it can highlight foods such as fish or vegetables in the same way a squeeze of lemon or a vinaigrette might.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very flinty and quite smoky, this is still very tightly wound and has a staggering minerality, but you need to wait at least until 2018 - actually 2028, or even 2038, would be better! - for this radical expression of Wachau terroir to give its best. An amazing finish that doesn't want to stop!
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Ried Klaus Riesling Smaragd opens with a bouquet like flint stone powder with dashes of lemon juice with crushed green herbs and apples. It is deep and intense, very concentrated but precise and cool. On the palate, this is a dense, juicy, irresistibly salty and piquant dry Riesling with lovely refined acidity and lingering mineral grip. This Klaus is tightly woven and full of potential. Although it is pretty impressive today, it will become even more complex and finessed in 5-10 years. A wine that no Riesling (or Ried Klaus) lover should miss!
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.
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.