2012 Riesling Achleiten Smaragd

Gentian and iris alluringly waft from the glass of Bodenstein’s 2012 Riesling Smaragd Achleiten, calling to mind his comment that in this vintage you can often identify the character of the vineyard before you are sure whether you have a Gruner Veltliner or a Riesling. Behind that floral perfume come intimations of fresh lime and apple that in turn brightly inform a juicy palate, tinged with coriander, infused with sassafras and smoky Lapsang tea, and underlain with wet stone. Intriguing, alluring, and persistent though this is, it lacks the focus and savory depth of the corresponding Steinriegl. Plan, though, to follow it through at least 2020. Weissenkirchen, opines its mayor and most-famous vintner Toni Bodenstein, had luck in the lottery that determined whether in the generally dry growing season of 2012, enough rainfall occurred where you were to keep the vines steadily metabolizing. In apparent testimony to that luck, harvest here was finished already on the third of November with the picking of the Wachstum Toni Bodenstein Riesling. I did not have opportunity to taste the entire range of Prager 2012 Gruner Veltliners: there was so little wine (due largely to disrupted flowering of this variety) that they were sold out very quickly; several were not available stateside; and Bodenstein confesses to cellaring among them only his Achleiten bottlings – else, he notes, his library would grow cumbersomely large! Importer: Winebow, Montvale, NJ; tel. (201) 445-0620