2016 Riesling Steinhaus

The Steiningers are not ones to harvest early or to be notably worried about alcoholic weight – and this applies to the selection of fruit for their huge, varietally diverse range of sparkling wines as well as to their non-sparkling Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. So I was not surprised to find that their 2016s aren’t significantly lighter-weight than Steininger wines from other recent vintages. Picking stretched across seven weeks and wasn’t concluded until November 8, with a bit of Pinot Blanc left hanging in hope of Eiswein that finally materialized the morning of January 7, 2017, but which I have not yet tasted. (My latest traversal of Steininger sparkling releases – which constitute a major share of this estate’s production – is by no means complete, but I shall review a considerable number of additional sparklers from them as part of my next report. For details concerning this estate’s vineyards, practices and recent history, readers are invited to consult the introductions to my reports on its 2013s, 2014s and 2015s.)