Winemaker Notes
Wachau Riesling is dry and often defined by high levels of dry extract (due to a lengthy ripening period) and a pleasing freshness (due to dramatic temperature swings between day and night). Rudi Pichler’s Riesling Achleithen comes from steep, southwest-facing terraces of meager primary rock soils resulting in a dry white wine of great structure and strong mineral character.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This astonishing dry riesling is already wonderful to drink, but it is, in fact, still very youthful and just beginning to reveal its awesome treasures. The very cool nose of white peach and wild herbs pulls you inexorably into the tunnel of incredibly intense wet stone minerality on the medium-bodied palate. And once you are in that tunnel it feels like there’s no exit and no turning back. In spite of this uncompromising nature, this is also so refined and so silky at the finish, it’s a wonder.
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Vinous
The 2022 Riesling Achleiten Smaragd opens with a flinty, smoky aspect before its citrus focus kicks in. The palate is light and transparent, with a lovely fill of fruit held in a tight and stony frame. Gazelle-like, this is incredibly stone-like in nature. It embodies that stoniness in its sleekness—ethereal and lifted, but anchored by minerality. This is a picture of stony, profound exactitude.
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Wine Spectator
Fresh-cut lilac and lavender notes give this an earthy, musky edge -- in a good way. Weighty and chewy, yet an appealing green stemminess moves through the flavors of apricot, nectarine and smoke. There's a pleasing vegetal crunch on the peppery, delicious and richly textured close, showing real character and tension.
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.