2016 Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibenberg
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Tasting notes
White peach and mirabelle share aromatic billing with snap pea, nutmeg and coriander seed. The impression on a subtly creamy yet brightly juicy palate is similarly diverse and appealing. The finish brings refreshment and crunch as well as clarity rare in wines from this large, heterogeneous, generally warm site, one on which Alzinger was quick to note that he has relatively cool, high-elevation holdings. (For more about the portion of Loibenberg in which this wine grew – a portion that privileges acid retention – consult my note on the corresponding 2014.) Salted radish lends incisive, mouthwatering stimulation to an impressively persistent finish.
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Average Score
Stephan Reinhardt, Wine Advocate
David Schildknecht, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Ried Loibenberg Grüner Veltliner Smaragd has a deep, clear and flinty flavored bouquet of ripe, concentrated and very well defined white and yellow-fleshed fruits. On the palate, this is a full-bodied, rich, round and charming but also refined, elegant and tightly woven Grüner Veltliner with power, good tannins and mineral grip. It is a generous and rather smooth Veltliner compared to the fresh and finessed Steinertal or the firmly structured Liebenberg. Its finish is long, intense and powerful and reveals tropical fruit aromas. Tasted in July 2017, one week after the bottling.