Domane Wachau Smaragd Achleiten Gruner Veltliner 2019
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Robert
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Ried Achleiten is known for wines with great uniqueness. A smoky minerality, subtle flinty notes and a very complex structure are typical for Achleiten wines. Grüner Veltliner from this vineyard has a particularly fine herbal spice, as well as delicate stone fruit notes and some exotic aromas. The gneiss soil of the Achleiten supports the firm acidity enormously. The term Smaragd stands for dry, dense, and complex wines of the Wachau; Apart from structure and depth, Smaragd wines also convince with great storage potential.
Well chilled, the wine goes great with veal and poultry like pigeon and quail or with spicy cheeses and strong fish dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Stony savor swings as a vestige alongside zesty citrus on the closed nose. The palate starts off tight and taut, right now it is all sleek and stony. Time in the glass allows glimpses of what still lies deeply buried: a rich, profound yeastiness reverberating with peppery, salty depth. This is an astonishingly concentrated package that may just be a time capsule that survives us. Drink 2030–2050.
Cellar Selection -
Wine & Spirits
Achleiten, a steep, high-altitude site of gneiss and mica-schist, is known for producing austere wines. This one feels like it’s in supreme control, revealing only what it wants to when it wants to—a glimpse of florals, some sandalwood scents; golden-plum fruit, acacia-honey notes. Altogether, however, those notes add up, gathering energy and creating a sense of richness and power without weight. It’s firm, long and packed with potential; give this cellar time.
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James Suckling
What a lovely, silky and creamy dry white, caressing the palate in such a seductive way. Very delicate herbal notes, a touch of snow pea, then a lot of minerality at the long, filigree finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From manifold plots from west to east, the 2019 Ried Achleiten Grüner Veltliner Smaragd has a brilliant and intense citrus color and offers a deep, delicately flinty and refreshing bouquet of crushed stones intermingled with lemon oil and juice notes as well as mirabelle aromas. Full-bodied and round, with crystalline acidity and a tight mineral and phenolic structure, this is a dense and complex Achleiten with an intense and still tight but persistent finish. An excellent 2019 to be aged for years.
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Wine Spectator
This white starts out with piercing scents of elderflower, then grapefruit and peach flavors, shaded by legume and earth notes. Powerful and broad, shows some heat on the finish. Drink now through 2025.
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The winery is led by MW Roman Horvath, whose team works closely with growers, and has instituted a vineyard quality assurance program. This sustainable vineyard management program includes measures of quality cultivation and is customized according to specific vineyards and vintage.
Austria imposes very stringent wine laws, and the Wachau region goes beyond these with their quality categories of Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd to assure uncompromising quality.
The Wachau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretching from the banks of the Danube, benefits from the river’s role as a climate regulator. Many of the vineyards are very steep and terraced with very old, dry stone walls. The very best vineyards are vinified separately to produce single vineyard Gruner Veltliners and Rieslings.
Fun to say and delightfully easy to drink, Grüner Veltliner calls Austria its homeland. While some easily quaffable Grüners come in a one-liter—a convenient size—many high caliber single vineyard bottlings can benefit from cellar aging. Somm Secret—About 75% of the world’s Grüner Veltliner comes from Austria but the variety is gaining ground in other countries, namely Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the United States.
As Austria’s most prestigious wine growing region, the landscape of the Wachau is—not surprisingly—one of its most dramatic. Millions of years ago, the Danube River chiseled its way through the earth, creating steep terraces of decomposed volcanic and metamorphic rock. Harsh Ice Age winds brought deposits of ancient glacial dust and loess to the terrace’s eastern faces. Today these steep surfaces of nutrient-poor and fast draining soil are home to some of Austria’s very best sites for both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling.
Wachau is small, comprising a mere three percent of Austria’s vine surface and, considering relatively low yields, represents a miniscule proportion of total wine production. Diurnal temperature shifts in Wachau facilitate great balance of sugar and phenolic ripeness in its grapes. At night cold air from the Alps and forests in the northwest displace warm afternoon air, which gets sucked upstream along the Danube.
Its sites are actually so varied and distinct that more emphasis is going into vineyard-designated offerings even despite grape variety. Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are most prominent, but the region produces Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Zweigelt among other local variants.