1997 Gruner Veltliner M Smaragd

In this vintage the fruit is all from the Loibnerberg and in fact incorporates an ultra-concentration of all the flavors in the previous wine from that site: ripe peach, honey, lentil, and a very fine mineral expression. There is also a sweetness akin to roasted red peppers. Enormously penetrating distilled-fruit concentration. Full but fine: not massive. Finish of honey, nutmeg, peach, sweet pea, faint pepper and subtle minerality. "This was not harvested very much later than the [other] Loibenberg," says Pichler. "It's just that this is from a south-facing parcel that's always eight or ten days ahead in ripeness." He is firmly convinced that the developmental potential of riesling is outdone by that of gruner veltliner, particularly in its full physiological ripeness as expressed in "M" (for monumental). There is also a gruner veltliner Auslese from the Loibnerberg which I did not taste.