1997 Riesling Vinothek

The Saahs family’s biodynamically run Nikolaihof not only harvests on a very different schedule from virtually any of its Wachau or Krems area neighbors and renders wines in an utterly distinctive style, it also bottles and releases them on a protracted timetable. Moreover, “extended élevage” and “late release” can take on a meaning here that they have at no other winery on earth. Selected lots sometimes sojourn for a decade or more in the large casks that at one point or another house virtually every wine the Nikolaihof bottles. Given the extraordinary and seemingly inimitable qualities exhibited by many of what the Saahs family terms “library wines,” and given that such late releases are compatible with their business model–which involves a locally beloved restaurant and sought-after venue for all manner of family festivities–I have repeatedly grieved of late to hear Niki (Nicholas Jr.) Saahs tell of exceptionally promising “library” candidates that he bottled sooner solely because there is simply no more room in the Nikolaihof’s Roman-era cellar (which has incidentally never flooded, even when the Danube has inundated the streets and roads in all directions). Another serious Nikolaihof throwback to earlier traditions is their 17th-century wooden press, utilized routinely until the late 1980s and then re-activated in 2005. (The tree—in German Baum--that forms the lever of this Baumpresse can be dated by its rings to medieval times.)

Viticulturally, too, the Saahs family marches to the beat of a different drummer. They were devoted to biodynamic practices two decades before any other Austrian wineries adopted them, and it is this approach that they credit with an ability to harvest ripe fruit of potential vinous complexity much earlier than virtually any of their neighbors. (That said, Peter Veyder-Malberg, Markus Lang and the Lesehof Stagård, all profiled in the present report, are recent and strikingly successful proponents of early harvesting.) There is typically a restraint and subtlety to the Nikolaihof Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners that can easily be misjudged as weakness of character—and I write as one who was guilty of underestimating these wines during the 1990s. Having adjusted my ear to the acoustics of these wines and taken the time needed to let them speak in the open glass, I nowadays find quite the opposite to be the case, namely that few wines from Austria’s two premier grape varieties display such distinctive and intriguing character as those of the Nikolaihof, and that’s not to mention their amazing versatility or sheer drinkability and digestibility, thanks in no small part to consistent textural allure and alcoholic levity. In keeping with local tradition as well, the Nikolaihof continues to render wines from numerous grape varieties other than Riesling and Grüner Veltliner (including at least one, Frühroter Veltliner, of which you have probably never heard, because neither have many Austrian enophiles). But with the exception of a consistently delicious and ageworthy Neuburger, their success with what German-speaking vintners call Ergänzungssorten—i.e., “supplemental cépages”—is highly variable, occasionally even downright disappointing.

My notes for this report reflect a full range of wines, mostly then recently released, that matriarch Christine Saahs presented to me in 2014 and I retasted last May, as well as some that I tasted solely with young cellarmaster Nicholas Saahs on his visit to the U.S. in early 2015. A subsequent set of notes will cover those wines presented to me in May of this year as recent or forthcoming releases, including the estate’s initial offerings from 2014. Picking in 2013 began here the third week of September which, incredibly, is only one week later than in the precocious, sun-drenched growing season of 2012. “Not one of the finished wines reached 13% alcohol,” noted Christine Saahs with evident pride.