2016 Riesling Smaragd Höhereck

Leo Alzinger junior concurred with my assessment that a primary virtue of vintage 2016 is the potential for wines of richness yet clarity, animating juiciness and relative levity - a potential especially significant for his eastern sector of the Wachau, where the past two decades have brought increasing risk that long hang time and corresponding positive phenolic evolution may end up being purchased at the price of high potential alcohol. Happily, that price was largely not exacted in 2016, although at 13-13.5% the Alzinger Smaragd bottlings from this vintage weigh in a bit higher than those of some other Wachau growers. “It was certainly anything but a simple vintage, though,” reported Alzinger. “Due to much too much rain in the first half of the year, there was extremely hard work in the vineyards, in particular to achieve equilibrium in the canopy. On the one hand, ventilation was critical. On the other hand, one didn’t want to remove too much foliage for fear of extreme sun exposure later on – which was precisely the risk that ensued.” And then there was the issue of crop-dropping or cluster-thinning to achieve a balance in the fruit load. “Since I’ve been involved,” observed Alzinger, “we have never made so many passes in an effort to achieve that balance.” Picking only began in late September. “Although Grüner Veltliner was relatively unproblematic,” noted Alzinger, “Riesling was not so easy, since despite the cool temperatures, conditions remained moist, resulting in some botrytis.” In consequence, certain Riesling parcels got picked ahead of corresponding Grüner Veltliner plots, with the heart of Smaragd harvest being brought in between mid-October and early November. “It reached a point with Riesling,” explained Alzinger, “where you could see it was going to be downhill from there, and in a matter of just a few days, whereas the Grüner Veltliner remained stable. If the weather had turned warm, we would have had a catastrophe.” Volumes of Grüner Veltliner were on the upside of average – thanks to this end of the Wachau having escaped the late April frost – but harvest conditions took a 20-25% toll on Riesling vis-à-vis the estate’s recent average, and there was no dedicated Liebenberg Riesling bottling. (For details concerning this estate’s vineyards, practices and recent history, readers are invited to consult the extended introduction to my report on its 2013s.)