Franz Hirtzberger, Hochrain Riesling Smaragd, Wachau

PNP. Cork perfect. Color is light gold. Nose showing secondary Riesling aromas with an edge of underripe pineapple that carries onto the palate. Swishing shows tart acidity in the he same vein. Sipping shows significant density of fruit and unctuous glycerin that balances the tart. Nice length- bein honest wish I had tried this a few years earlier because I think this is pushing its prime.

2012 vintage

Popped and poured, and straight out of the gates I love the spicy nose, with lime zest, ginger and fresh, slightly savory herbs and fresh fennel. Good energy on the attack, with honeyed limes, white peppercorns, a little gooseberry, and a subtle yet distinctly tropical note of passion fruit. There’s undeniably a layered richness and glycerin here that some in the Wachau eschew, but it’s not overdone for my tastes. A touch of bitterness on the finish sweeps up any …

2012 vintage

Superbe évolution, à boire

2008 vintage

Pale gold with reflections of yellow. A deep and sensuous Smaragd, this offers pronounced aromas of super ripe tropical fruit, apricot, grilled pineapple, baked mirabelle, ginger, saffron, yellow flowers, citrus and a touch of crushed rock minerality. Rich, lush and full bodied on the palate; this is balanced with medium to medium+ acidity but its texture is still one of plush voluptuousness. There is plenty of gas left in the tank here.

2012 vintage

Dinner at Testaccio (Chicago, IL) : Ugh, I hate having to admit that Salil is right (especially about stuff like dry riesling). This wine was pretty damn good. It started out very peachy and fruit forward, somewhat Keller-like but lacking the weight on the backend. There's a little bit of white pepper and spice here, but it's at the end of the dinner where this really started singing -- this became so incredibly saline, and the mineral lift emerged prominently …

1999 vintage

Casual dinner at Testacio : Honey and sweet apple with some diesel. Palate is big, round and powerful with lots of diesel and smoke. Interesting for sure.

1999 vintage

Wow, this is delicious! I’ve got some boneless Heritage pork chops marinating in soy sauce and Dijon mustard that I will be throwing on the grill soon and this should be perfect with those. Dry on the palate, yet showing some real substance. A lengthy finish - hard to imagine this getting any better, but it doesn’t feel tired either, so drink or hold.

2012 vintage

Fair bit of gas. Some light seepage. Cristalline light and refreshing acidity. Slatey. Still young. Drink or hold 12.5% abv

2008 vintage

From Magnum nice and refreshing with yellow fruits and minerals

2012 vintage

Sunday at Salil's : Salil opened this up for me. It was an amazing bottle of wine. White fruit, petrol, beeswax, and lemon peel came through on the nose. On the palate this was equally complex and perfectly balanced. A true pleasure to drink.

1999 vintage

I've had some amazing bottles of this over the past few years, but this was on another level. Spectacular aromatics; it starts out with peach and petrol but with time turning more mineral and smoky, and a palate that is beyond anything I can describe. This has every facet of great Riesling; fruit, spice, honey, and incredible minerality all coming together with a combination of palate-staining intensity and remarkable finesse and lightness on the palate.

1999 vintage

Regular dinner group (@ PZ) : In the bouquet yellow fruits and minerals. Slightly sweet start with ripe white and tropical yellow fruits, good acidity and soft bitterness.

2012 vintage

What a stunning riesling. For an austrian wine very cool style if you can say so with lots of botrytis

1999 vintage

Hirtzberger Hochrain (Sovana Bistro, Kennett Square, PA) : From a day two glass. Really nice, intense nose with some herbal/floral and wet stone/slate notes. Today the wine is a little softer, rounder. Citrus and tart tangerine. Really nice and still very young.

2012 vintage

Yellow color, fruity nose, wood and fruit on the palate, full body, perfect age.

2008 vintage

A sub-par showing, not quite on the level of previous bottles that I've enjoyed, though still a really impressive wine. There's an astringent quality to the nose with a stony/asphalt-like note dominating, and the fruit and floral elements rather reticent. The palate is another matter entirely - it's incredibly plush and layered with an array of ripe orchard fruits, flowers, and mineral notes, great complexity and remarkable focus and persistence. Still a really enjoyable wine to drink, but this didn't …

1999 vintage

As usual a seductive wine. Apricot and peach. Intense but one layer.

2012 vintage

Deep yellow. More citrus than stone fruit on the nose, only a trace of secondary aged Riesling aromas. Medium weight, definitely not as densely packed as some of these Austrian Smaragds. Dry, intense, bitter citrus, tea, and peach in descending order. Absolutely show stopping acidity and stone at the back end. A great bottle and the best showing since 2012. In between, I've had bottles that seemed tired in comparison.

1999 vintage

Bu en Colombie, a enchanté tout le monde.

2008 vintage

Salon Graz 2014: Slightly green and not so ripe this year with herbal notes, citrus flavors and a nice floral taste. Also great minerality. Not as powerful as usual for a Hirtzberger wine and less expressive than some of the other Austrian Rieslings tonight, but it should come together with more bottle age. - 90+ points

2012 vintage

Decanted about 20 minutes so far. My first Hirtzberger, and this is amazing. Exotic nose filled with herbal aromas of mint, dill, parsley, and cilantro, along with peach, green apple, and hints of pineapple. It's like a chameleon, showing me different elements each time I put my nose in the glass. There is an extreme sense of refinement, not in a "made" sort of way, but in an elegant, understated way. The palate follows suit, particularly with that sense of …

2012 vintage

crispy acidity, decent, mouthfilling exotic fruits as mango, pineapple, long finish, well balanced, very clean long finissh, long life 10+ years

2008 vintage

Tasted at winery. Great wine. Strong citrus fruits, peach, apricot.

2012 vintage

Full yellow. Peach and black tea with a bit of honey. Very full bodied, powerful fruit and good back end minerality. By the end of the bottle, the barest notes of oxidation crept in. Looking back at my notes over the past few years, now I think there is little question that this has peaked and lost some energy and excitement. Still at a high level but would advise drinking up-not the 30 year wine I once thought it might …

1999 vintage

Ours is not to Riesling why tasting (Prince Wine Store - Bank Street) : Dried tropical fruit with musky minerals and a depth of textural crunch.

2008 vintage

Pre-Holiday Dinner @ Home : Uncanny how this can possess so much power yet be so weightless. A smack of citrus with a rocky saline wash in the finish. Lip pursingly good.

1999 vintage

This is superb. Powerful, complex, intense yet elegant with layers of stony and saline mineral notes, ripe citrus and stone fruits, and developing savoury and smoky elements all coming together seamlessly. There's fantastic balance here with bright acidity and great length. Fantastic Riesling, one to both drink and hold.

1999 vintage

Wonderful. Balanced. Delicious and subtle sweetness. Drunk at the restaurant Eleven Madison Park - New York

2008 vintage

Wachau Spring Wine Festival (Wachauer Weinfrühling) (The Wachau) : From a vineyard just after St Michael as one heads downstream from Spitz. This was delicately perfumed, with a floral nose and a dreamy palate. It was subtle but very persistent, with a long long aftertaste. € 34. *****

2012 vintage

Comes across younger than my last bottle with the fruit more intense and forward, but also framed by a vivid stoniness and maturing smoky flavours that emerge with air. As always with Hirtzberger, there's a remarkable combination of power and finesse here, and I'm glad I have a few more of this.

1999 vintage

tropic fruits,citrus a bit smokey and spicy. Not bad but a bit disappointing

2008 vintage

What a great bottle. This is totally seamless, with so many layers of fruit, minerality, flowers and mature, deeper toned savoury notes coming together harmoniously on the nose and palate. There's that power and intensity I always expect from Hirtzberger but also a remarkable sense of lightness and precision here, and a finish that just keeps unfolding for minutes.

1999 vintage

Full yellow. As with past bottles, powerful dried peach scents, but now for the first time, some petrol. Lush, even a bit oily. Just off dry stone fruit and lemon with tremendous acidity and soil kicking in as it goes. Fantastic and much more open than other bottles over the past couple of years. Either this has reached maturity much sooner than I anticipated or this was an atypically advanced bottle. Still plenty of time for this one way or …

1999 vintage

Excellent wine - very tastfull and fruity - lots of minerals but with a very soft touch

2008 vintage

Deep yellow. Intense nose of citrus and tea. Full bodied, dry, mouth filling and powerful. Dizzying array of lemon, peach and even a little pineapple all bound up by tremendous minerality. Fantastic dry Riesling.

1999 vintage

Top of the line Federspiel. I would say that this is just in the beginning of it's drinking phase. I should have bought more of this little pearl. Stringent citrus tones, minerals and hints of botrytis on the nose with great, great acidity in the mouth. Hardly any of the sweetness that I found in Hirtzbergers Grüner Veltliner Federspiels from the same vintage. Blindly I would have put this one as a decent Smaragd from a cool year, which says …

2008 vintage

Light yellow. Much fresher looking and smelling than the '96 Frederic Emile we also had tonight. Lots of material packed into a very small space-dense and powerful with strong quinine more than fruit tones. Little in the way of secondary development. The way it has shown over the past few years makes me think that it will continue to evolve glacially and be a 25 to 30 year wine.

1999 vintage

Wine Enthusiast's Toast of the Town (Field Museum - Chicago) : Beautiful bottling. White of the tasting. Great finesse and mineral driven nose and palate. Crisp and showing nice acid on the back end but still a touch of residual sweetness.

2008 vintage

Bohemian Duck Dinner (Pinot and Riesling) (New Buffalo, Michigan) : Bought this on sale for $27 years ago (normally $50) and opened it this weekend with my wife's duck. This was better than either the 1998 or 2004 vintages of this wine. At 12 years old this wine was still going strong. It showed the depth, elegance and subtlety that age can bring out in a fine Riesling. Golden yellow color. Slight hint of petrol on the nose but not …

1999 vintage

Light to medium yellow. Powerful quinine and herbs. Totally dry, focused and striking an extraordinary balance between compact density and a sense of lightness. This has not budged much since I last tasted it in 2008.

1999 vintage

On the nose aromas of lime and intense minerality of wet rocks. It also exhibits some peach, minty-herbal notes and a little bit of petrol. Gorgeous on the palate with bruleed lemon flavors carrying over a creamy texture. Brings wave after wave of flavor with beautiful balanced acidity giving it lift. Very good length.

1999 vintage

hellgelb; in der Nase mineralisch und bananig; am Gaumen etwas kantige Säure, hohl und einfach, reißt ab der Gaumenmitte schnell ab, da kommt keine rechte Trinkfreude auf. Dieser Wein ist für einen Smaragd eine Enttäuschung.

2008 vintage

Still showing a spritzy edge at this stage but doesn't detract from the wine. Nice exotic floral notes with an acid profile that keeps a tight line. Overall a pretty good showing for this level.

2008 vintage

A selection of different terraced vineyards of the Hirtzberger estate (Spitz/Wachau), immediately appealing on both the nose and the palate. Clear straw-yellow color and a lovely floral nose with rich citrus and peach fruit and also some slightly smoky tones. Well-structured palate, dominated by lush Riesling fruit, with a solid mineral backbone and a refreshing acidity. Spicy finish. This wine should be drunk young (now and over the next two years). Good food wine. Jonge, zeer aansprekende wijn (zowel neus …

2008 vintage

Very good, simple, dry Riesling

2008 vintage

Medium yellow with some green. This started out with creamy, herbal notes that would have had me guessing Gruner Veltliner instead of Riesling, but the Riesling elements of slate, grapefruit, and green apple gradually asserted themselves. Great acidity and minerality serve as the scaffolding for a seamless, medium bodied wine with an endless finish. Herbs including sage and pine notes persisted, along with a glorious, high toned floral/distillate quality. Complex, young, and altogether great.

1999 vintage

We had this at Pam and Geoff's yearly wine dinner, which has moved from Boston to Durham, but still draws the faithful from all over. This wine benefitted over the evening from aeration and warming, and paired well with everything from the grilled shrimp and white bean salad to the cheese course (I couldn't make myself finish it with the salad, and luckily, we had a bottle to have when everyone left the next day!) Unusually complex nose combining orange …

1999 vintage

very unique nose of minerals and violets- mountain stream!- palate is a bit shut down at the moment and revealing only hints of fruit- tons of minerals with great structure that literally dances on the tongue- lightweight and focused. not at peak, but very interesting.

1999 vintage

Really great bottle. Snappy gooseberries, flowers, and minerals on the nose. You can almost feel the nose as it is layered , textured, and rich. The palate is concentrated with essence of stone and pitted stone fruits, but without any heaviness at all. In fact, that is the big surprise with this wine, how it manages to convey such concentration without any heaviness. The finish is bright, linear, mineral, and dusted with white flowers. Has lost it's baby fat and …

1999 vintage

Tasted with marinated shrimp. Fresh, slightly spritzy, tasted of citrus and pignole nuts. Superb wine, always seems the Austrian whites taste better with food. Not so much a standalone wine. Elegant and wonderfully acidic.

1999 vintage

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Franz Hirtzberger, Hochrain Riesling Smaragd, Wachau

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