Weingut Emmerich Knoll Ried Loibenberg Riesling Smaragd, Wachau, Austria

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Knolls’ 2010 Riesling Smaragd Loibenberg delivers pure, ripe white peach tinged with the piquancy of its pits, and juicy lime and orange laced with the bitterness of their rinds. Sweet, musky peony-like perfume adds intrigue and allure. Surprisingly sedate given the vivacity and dynamic exhibited by the corresponding and marginally higher-alcohol Gruner Veltliners, this silken-textured, juicy Riesling Smaragd delivers an utterly intriguing, subtly long panoply of mineral nuances – crushed stone, iodine, alkalinity, and others ineffable – that should bring Riesling-lovers back over the next decade. “Warmth and wind at the end of October gave Smaragd the extra push, especially for Gruner Veltliner,” notes Emmerich Knoll Senior, and his estate did not begin picking that category until the first week in November. “Up until then, it pretty much counted as settled that we wouldn’t bottle a 2010 Vinothek in either Riesling or Gruner Veltliner, which in fact we did. But I can’t recall when the Smaragd ever had acid levels identical to the Federspiel as happened this year. Not that I’m unhappy about this,” he adds with a laugh. “There have been and will be quite a few vintages in which we would be happy for some of 2010’s acidity.” A portion of the Riesling Federspiel crop was de-acidified as must. Total production was only around half of what Knoll considers normal. None of the Smaragd – collectively, almost unbelievably, representing the heart of one of the finest Knoll collections in memory – was not due to have been bottled until late this summer.Importer: Circo Vino Besenville, IL; tel. (417) 732 4200