(2022) There is a sprinkle of pepper, but this is mostly about pear and and nuances of more tropical fruit, hint of mango and passion fruit. Lovely fruit on the palate, creamy and full with a sweetness to the mid-palate fruit, then good acidity bracing and giving length.
(2015) At a recent tasting I really enjoyed Domaine Wachau's cheaper Grüner Veltliner Federspiel 2013, but this from the top 'Smaragd' level of alcohol and ripeness was much more intense, limey and I found it very Riesling-like in a way. It displayed more ripeness quite obviously, though it was arguably less vivacious and herbaceous than the Federspiel, but the palate confirmed that serious intensity with massive concentration of flavour, substance and a long, mineral-taut finish.
(2011) A little more honey and candied peel here, but clean and focused. A rich, mouth-filling texture and plenty of peachy fruit into a long, crisply focused finish.
(2011) Lovely lifted, sherbetty brightness here, a touch of kerosene and lime. But there are floral notes too in a complex picture. Off-dry, there is great intensity to the fruit and beautiful balance.
(2009) Fantastically oily, viscose nose with peach kernel and ripe, fleshy stone fruits. Minerality comes through decisively on the palate, a big rush of something herbal and steely, with the weight and the flesh coming through equally powerfully. Long and explosive stuff and indestructible I'd have thought.
(2009) There's a sense of richness and intensity here, a touch of butter, but the palate becomes much more linear and focused, with a big core of acidity. One for the future.
(2006) Light, spicy pear and cool stony white fruit. Palate has plenty of fruit and a lovely pithy dryness of citrus fruit; still with sweeter edges, but a bone dry finish.
(2005) Another from Dinstlgut Loiben, this Wachau Riesling is a modest 12% alcohol, and is made from a selection of late-harvested grapes from the best parts of the Loibenberg. It has a pale yellow colour and immediately attractive nose, with aromas of waxy limes and a faint touch of petrol, with a creamy quality and big core of minerality. It is sensational on the palate, with a blast of sweet-edged, zesty but full and unctuous fruit: a fascinating mélange of lime and grapefruit, but with a richness and succulence papaya and ripe nectarine. The wine is quite full and creamy-textured through the mid-palate, and the finish absolutely sings with more of that mineral and fat, quite oily citrus acidity. A cracking wine, and Nick says he has been drinking the 1997 recently, so this should age very well for a few more years at least.
(2005) Also pure and mineral on the nose, but this exudes a little extra complexity with fine floral nuances and a delicately spicy undertone. The fruit suggests restrained, but ripe pear and peachy sweetness. On the palate it is again dry, but there's a hint of fruit sweetness here that just lifts the palate a touch, with a background of ground spices and tangy, citrus and white fruit flavours. There's a fine, long finish where that suggestion of fruit sweetness reasserts in a beautifully balanced GruV.
(2005) This Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) is a lovely dry wine from the Wachau, with only 12.5% alcohol, but plenty of character. The colour is a very pale gold, and the nose juicy and appealing, with lots of succulent, lightly-honeyed white fruits, and a clean, fresh appeal. On the palate it is packed with fat, juicy, bursting fruit suggesting both a white fruit (pear and peach) linearity, and broader, more tropical notes. There is good body and weight, and the sweet-toned impression from the natural fruit ripeness is braced by fine mineral acidity. This wine has good length.
