2013 Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Kellerberg

In the course of the 1990s, F. X. Pichler achieved larger-than-life status as an iconic Wachau vintner. He also acquired a reputation for no-holds-barred aspiration to ripeness and intensity, and for the high alcohol that this often entailed. But he has always emphasized—when you can draw him into extended conversation, which has never been easy—the extent to which his accomplishments were possible only thanks to four decades of viticultural interventionism and especially Grüner Veltliner vine selection practiced by his father Franz Pichler beginning in 1928, as well as the extent to which growing seasons in the ‘90s and ‘00s, by encouraging sugar accumulation and botrytis, often forced growers to choose between high alcohol and marginal ripeness of flavor, in which case F. X. did not have to think twice. The relative roles of nature and style can, here as elsewhere, be debated endlessly.

Two things, though, are certain. First, the wines that made F. X. Pichler’s reputation routinely managed to buffer their alcohol—even if you thought insufficiently, which this taster seldom did—to a degree achieved by very few other Wachau vintners, one result of this being that in trying to imitate Pichler’s success, many growers fell on their faces, as did their wines. And the second is, in the words of F. X.’s son Lucas, that “in recent years we’ve been harvesting a little earlier in order to depress the alcohol levels a bit.” After welcoming their results in the unusually cool 2007 vintage, both Pichlers began openly discussing the issue of alcohol, and guiding their subsequent wines in the direction of moderation (moderation on the finished alcohol scale, that is; it was by no means their intention to discontinue powerful “M” bottlings or their Riesling “Unendlich,” let alone abandon fanatic determination to achieve the best possible quality.) But as 2013 demonstrates, reconciling richness and complexity with levity has not always demanded early picking. Stylistic change at this address has also brought an expanded range of Federspiel bottlings, a case in point being the decision to dedicate exclusively to Riesling in that weight class the oddly butte-like yet riverside Burgstall vineyard recently reclaimed by the family. The Pichlers have benefited since 2009 from an impressive and spacious new cellar.

Picking in 2013 commenced early, in the last days of September, in order to guarantee a good crop of Federspiel, and the results are in no way ripeness-deficient let alone suggestive of rain dilution. Predictably though, this made for a very long harvest season, since it continued, albeit with a significant October pause, until the last week of that month. While Lucas Pichler remarked on—and welcomed for his “M” and ‘Unendlich” bottlings—slight late-autumn desiccation of berries in a few locations, especially with Riesling, he pronounced his 2013 vintage botrytis-free. “I’d rather do multiple and more selective pickings to get around it,” he added. And freedom from botrytis certainly played into his hands in yielding lusciously ripe wines at modest alcohol levels, the Federspiel bottlings having finished in the low 12s and the Smaragds all under 14%, if at times barely. The Pichlers draw a comparison to their 1999 vintage.

Lucas Pichler has always preferred cooler vintages. While many of his colleagues adored the 2012s, he thought the vintage was perhaps “a touch too warm,” but added that “at least there was no botrytis.” There was none in 2013 either, which he describes as “a nearly perfect vintage for me.” While he prefers the lower alcohols that came with the year, his only worry was that the Rieslings were “a touch tight” in their youth and that many of them will be drunk far too young. Nonetheless, he clearly states that “2013 was better for us than 2012. The wines have that inner balance that will allow them to mature gracefully.”

While his father Franz Xaver excelled with a richer, more opulent style and often allowed a touch of botrytis to infuse his Grüner Veltliners, Lucas’s direction is clearly towards lighter, clearer and purer expressions of each vineyard site. Yes, he still makes wines like the Grüner Veltliner M, which he views as a safety valve for overripe grapes. Like the Riesling Unendlich, “it is to be viewed as the ultimate expression of the variety, not the site. The way we live and eat has changed,” he maintains. “Our wines must evolve as well.”

I have now tasted most of the wines included in this article two or three times and still remain rather puzzled. There is no question that 2013 marks a new style for the estate, but there is also something herbal, slightly smoky and embryonic in each that make most of them very difficult to assess. It will be fascinating to follow how they mature, and I may have erred on the downside in my judgments here, but I still have question marks in my mind.