From an old vines parcel they were recently able to purchase – situated along the pathway from St. Michael and its eponymous church (hence the site’s name) to Wosendorf – the Hirtzbergers’ 2010 Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Kirchweg is scented and flavored with haricots verts and green tomato accented by diverse green herbs. Subtly creamy and oily yet refreshing, it finishes with soothing length, a piquant note of fruit pit serving for counterpoint. “The idea with this wine,” explains Hirtzberger Junior, “is to achieve a classic Smaragd without even a hint of over-ripeness,” and in that he has certainly succeeded in this first installment, which I would anticipate will drink best over the next half dozen years. 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
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