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). Sedimentary soils of sand and stone give Kirchweg Riesling a dense mineral texture and fine fruity flavors.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Welcome to the dark side of Wachau dry riesling! Deep and delicately spicy nose that’s full of mystery. Incredible concentration and massive wet stone character on the very precise medium-bodied palate. Radical mineral energy and garden herb freshness at the enormously long and tightly-focused finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Riesling Kirchweg Smaragd is from a flat site close to the Danube where loess mixes with paragneiss deposited by erosion. Gentle, ripe and aromatic apricot is held in a citrus embrace on the nose. The palate is taut, citrus-focused and bright, with a zesty, cooling, ocean-like freshness that sweeps towards riper fruit. This so long and so gorgeous.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Finely spicy, elegant and aromatic on the nose with fine concentration and crystalline rock spice, Rudfo Piuchler's 2022 Ried Kirchweg Riesling Smaragd is elegant, fresh and persistently salty as well as spicy, with a firm structure and good intensity.
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Wine Spectator
A green herbaceous thread weaves through the notes of persimmon and fleshy mango in this spicy version, while bitter alpine herb and mint accents add pleasantly to the greenness. Crushed stone and pith elements make for a firm, well-defined finish. Drink now through 2032. 180 cases made, 10 cases imported.
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.