2017 Rudi Pichler Riesling Smaragd Achleithen, Wachau

Very complex nose with everything from exotic fruit and pomelo to white pepper, fresh herbs and spring flowers. Great brilliance and minerality, packed into a remarkably sleek package for this grape and the opulent vintage. Then comes the finish that just doesn't want to let go! Drink or hold.

98 points jamessuckling.com

With roughly 5% botrytis, the 2017 Ried Achleiten Riesling Smaragd is concentrated, deep and fresh on the nose. Powerful and piquant, intense and juicy on the palate, this is a terribly dense Riesling with 6.1 grams of residual sugar. This is a rich and powerful, minerally and piquant Riesling with great intensify and length. Tasted in Wösendorf/Wachau, September 2018. 

The soils in the idyllically situated westerly Achleithen consist of a blend of sandy fine earth with coarse scree and stone, mixed with Gföhler gneiss and migmatitic amphibolite. Of all our vineyard sites, the westerly Achleithen manifests the least limestone content. Great portions of it are even limestone-free, where the pH value of the soil turns out correspondingly lower. In the higher elevation parcels, soils are dominated by Gföhler gneiss, while migmatitic amphibolite prevails in the lower levels. Because of landslides, both types of stone appear in the lower parcels.