2003 Riesling Smaragd Achleiten

Toni Bodenstein was the most emphatic Wachau proponent of harvesting late in 2003, and he did not begin picking until October 28, or four days after the first snow and frost. Not only were the tannins bitter and the flavors insufficiently developed in early October, Bodenstein asserted, but levels of nitrogen in the grapes were too low at that point to have sustained unproblematic fermentations. Growers who picked then, he added, were reacting in fright to diminishing acidity. In the event, up to one and a half grams per liter of compensatory succinic acid were generated by the yeasts in the process of a felicitous fermentation, "something which has only happened to this degree in a few other outstanding recent vintages: 1990, 1993 and 1997. " (Vin Divino, Chicago, IL) Also recommended: 2003 Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Weitenberg, 2003 Muskateller Smaragd Steinriegl.