2009 Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Rotes Tor

Community Tasting Notes (4) Avg Score: 90.8 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View fafounet's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/14/2013 - fafounet wrote:

  Grüner Veltliner (Chapitre 20, 75004 Paris): Beau nez, legerement miellé.
  Grande longueur. Amertume bien intégrée.
  Aromes de pêche, notes poivrées.
  14(15) / 20

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View stadler's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/14/2013 - stadler wrote:

  Grüner Veltliner (Chapitre 20, Paris 4e, France): La robe est ici franchement dorée. On sent une complexité aromatique encore contenue, il a besoin d'aération ou est dans une phase un peu fermée. Rondeur et puissance s'associent au palais, la matière est présente, c'est le plus déroutant des Grüner Veltliner de la dégustation.

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View honest bob's profile
  • Report Issue

  1/28/2011 - honest bob wrote: 85 Points

  Good food and so-so wines at Wein & Co in Salzburg; 1/27/2011-1/28/2011: Aromatically restrained to the point of neutrality, this wine's fat alcoholic entry and monolithic, slightly oily midpalate are only enlivened by a healthy dose of white pepper. Perhaps it is just temporarily closed up, but I don't see where the 92P identified by a previous TN-writer can possibly be slumbering. 85(-86)P

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View sweetstuff's profile
  • Report Issue

  10/8/2010 - sweetstuff wrote: 92 Points

  We walked into a flurry of activity in this tasting room, because several moderately large customers were jostling to get a few bottles of the upper-end wines, especially the Honivog and l Singerriedl Smaragd,tipped as being something very special in publications like the Falstaff Wine Guide, but completely sold out due to tiny quantities produced, at the relatively expensive (relative to quality) prices of Euros 37 and 40, respectively, consumer ex-cellars.
  
  A house that tries to maximize sense of place and minimize use of sulfur dioxide in all its incarnations. They are deeply committed to the Wachau quality scale of Steinfeder, Federspiel, and Smaragd.
  
  2009 Rotes Tor Grüner Veltliner Federspiel, picked between October 26 and November 2, 12.5 pabv, Euros 13 (US $17, about $30 US). Mid-green. Honied oatmeal and sweet pea, very elegand and actually deep and really profound nose, giving a sensation of nutty richness. Palate is limy but rich, mid-viscous with prolonged and energetic minerality on the finish. 1.5 grams RS/Liter. 92/100, a clearly overperforming wine for the type.
  
  2009 Rotes Tor Grüner Veltliner Smaragd, Euros 22. (US $28.60, approx retail $45.) 13.5 pabv, 4 g/l residual.Greenish. Again honied oatmeal, with the sweet peas having a floral element, becoming bright and smoky somehow at the same time. All this carries over onto a palate with the impression of freshness, even though it's a bigger wine, as it should be. With time may improve a tad, and really will benefit from some bottle age in terms of integration. 92+/100. Impressive potential.
  
  2009 Axpoint Grüner Veltliner Smaragd. Euros 22. (US $28.60, approx retail $45.) Richer green color, showing prominent 'Kirchenfenster' ('church windows'), what German-speaking folks often call 'legs' on the side of the wine glass. Honied with a pear note, with forthcoming spiciness to the nose and palate and a floral underpinning. A stony-smoky finish develops out of a moderately energetic minerality. 92/100.
  
  2009 Honivogl Smaragd Grüner Veltliner. Euros 37 (US $48.10, retail about $95) Full greenish. Nose runs to broad but neutral peach, reserved, with lots of smoky and somewhat mysterious honey; minerals and lime on the palate; the first of these wines that is undeniably a Grüner V and would be obviously so tasted blind. It seems like Hirtzberger plays down the GV spicy herbosity in all but the top bottlings. Fihishes with more aparagus and 'green' mineral notes. 93/100
  
  2008 Hochrain Riesling Smaragd Euros 29, ($US 38, retail about $75). Adds spice to smoky breadth, with a dancing sense of dry sweetness and richness, very clean. 14.5 percent alcohol by volume, but no sense of it. The palate is all of that and ends with what seems a curtain of almonds. My style all the way. 93/100. Bought two bottles of this, especially since the Singerriedl was sold out, probably even before it was bottled.
  
  Also tasted: Hochrain 'Selection', a wine with 30 grams of residual sugar, of whidh I didn't take a note.
  
  Hirtzberger has long since been 'discovered' all over Europe and even the United States. The fact that all the top wines were sold out this early shows that the prices are actually low relative to the market. A tough reality!

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.