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.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very concentrated but every bit as refined, this fabulous medium-bodied gruner veltliner has great underplayed power and a terrific mineral energy. Brimming with wild herbs yet so subtle. Extremely long finish in which cool and warm elements are almost perfectly intertwined. Sustainable. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
The 2023 Grüner Veltliner Ried Zwerithaler Kammergut Smaragd is a site still owned by Melk Abbey. The wines made from this site were historically reserved for the abbot. These vines were planted in 1907 and have immense genetic variety, including a small proportion of other historic varieties like Heunisch, aka Gouais Blanc. Located on the eastern fringe of Weissenkirchen, along the Schildbachgraben, this is like an amphitheater looking southeast across nine terraces, shaded as of mid-afternoon. Gentle, subtle moss on the nose comes with a slight overtone of citrus. The palate is almost viscous, so fluid, but so fine-boned, immensely dense and rounded but without heaviness. Lovely citrus, slender freshness and great individuality distinguish the wine. (Dry)
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Wine Spectator
There’s real power and concentration to this stunning version, with salty, briny depth to its yellow apple, lemon-lime, persimmon and roasted agave notes, all on a mineral foundation. Fluid and juicy, with dry spices and meadow blossoms, plus a tug of white tea tannins that bolsters the lengthy finish. Firing on all cylinders now and will go the distance in the cellar. 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.