2010 Riesling Singerriedel Smaragd

The 2010 Riesling Smaragd Singerriedel – portions of which were not picked until November 22, this year’s busy final day of harvest chez Hirtzberger – tastes as much of peach and peach kernel as it does of the apricot generally associated with this site. High-toned aromatic allusions to pit fruit distillates; cyanic bitterness and piquant notes of apple skin, fruit pit, and toasted nuts, are all viewed through a matrix of juicy, transparent, downright refreshing peach, apricot, and lemon, with welcome stimulation from a lick of salt in its long finish. This notable example of genuine richness of texture adeptly allied to vintage-typical high acidity and accentuated phenolics should be worth following for at least a decade. The Hirtzbergers experience considerable resemblance to the 1999 Singerriedel, which comes off as piquantly and fascinatingly smoky and mineral though a bit spare and attenuated when tasted alongside. (I enjoyed a Hochrain of this vintage from my own cellar not too long ago that displayed greater succulence.) Given the penchant at this address for late harvest; considerable skin contact; and must aeration, I was not surprised to learn from Franz Hirtzberger Junior that only their Riesling Federspiel had been at all de-acidified. “If there’d been even a bit more hanging out there though,” he notes “then we wouldn’t have made it” – i.e. acheived ripe grapes. “We learned our lesson from 1996,” as Hirtzberger Senior saw it, namely not to harvest – despite ongoing crop loss and fear of ignoble rot (though in this case that didn’t materialize) – until the acids finally began to diminish and the skins to properly ripen. Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700