2013 Riesling Smaragd Klaus

Postwar pioneer Josef Jamek, active until shortly before his death in 2011, did more than anyone else to set the dry style and high fruit-quality standards that eventually came to prevail in the Wachau. He rebuilt the Klaus vineyard and was instrumental in selecting top-quality vine material on which the success of many future growers would rest. After taking the leading role here for nearly two decades, Jamek’s son-in-law Hans Altmann has recently passed the directorship to his son-in-law Herwig Jamek, who along with cellarmaster Volker Mader seems to be pulling this estate out of a phase in which the ostensibly top wines were too often alcoholically overbearing or top-heavy in consequence of botrytis and attendant high must weights.

Due to the size of their holdings in Klaus (with Riesling) and in Achleiten (with Grüner Veltliner) the Jameks are able to bottle both Federspiel and Smaragd from each. In keeping both with tradition and the needs of their justly iconic riverside restaurant, the family continues to work with an extensive range of grape varieties beyond Riesling and Grüner Veltliner, of which Muskateller, Pinot Blanc and (surprisingly) Zweigelt are the consistently most interesting and successful. While I still have reservations about what are ostensibly the “top” Jamek wines, I’m delighted to report that, taken as a whole, the 2013s here represent the most successful Jamek collection in some time.