2012 Gruner Veltliner Loibner Ried Steinertal

With his 2012 Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Steinertal, says Lucas Pichler, “the aim is to showcase the vineyard, which is a cool site, whereas in Loiben, really, things are (generally) a bit too warm.” Prior to this solo debut – spurred by the acquisition of a second parcel – the Pichlers’ Gruner Veltliner from this site went into their Loibenberg (and “M”). This solo Steinertal projects delightfully luscious and exuberant pear and melon fruit along with saliva-inducing, metaphorically cooling suggestions of stalk celery. A sweet-smoky bite of Szechuan pepper lends invigoration and cut to a juicily protracted finish. A model of elegance and lift allied to fundamentally rich ripeness, it should perform beautifully through at least 2022. “In recent years,” notes Lucas Pichler, “we’ve been harvesting a little earlier in order to depress the alcohol levels a bit,” which in 2012 meant among other things beginning with Gruner Veltliner Federspiel already in the third week of September. After what I had tasted thus far of the vintage, I was amazed to find the Rieslings here in aggregate even finer than the Gruner Veltliners, a pattern that was to be dramatically accentuated at nearby Alzinger. (I did not get chance on my most recent visit to catch-up with Pichlers’ Sauvignon Blanc from this vintage.) Importer: Weygandt-Metzler Importing, Unionville, PA; tel. (610) 486-0700