Domäne Wachau, Riesling, Federspiel Terrassen

Descrizione

This is a delicious Riesling that almost, almost steals the limelight from its Grüner sibling! Juicy and bright, with a crisp texture and long finish, it is a fantastic food wine and shows what goodness is available from Austria at the minute. Complex and layered with white fruit, orchard fruit, lime and pear, leading to a precise, juicy and stone-fruit flavoured palate. It’s the classic Riesling and the classic presentation of the region!

This is a cracking white that is from the middle tier of the classification of Wachau wines in Austria, called Federspiel, which literally translates as “feather play”… but also means “feather stones”. It’s a reference to the light grasses that grow widely in and on the stony soils of the Wachau and almost no where else. This elegance and lightness of touch coupled with the racy acidity and precision in the wines gives them a really captivating set of characteristics. It’s a category that also has set criterion for alcohol levels between 11.5% and 12.5% with no chaptalization (that’s adding sugars to the wines) and a maximum residual sugar content of 4g per litre, which makes them very dry indeed.

This wine is made by the very important Domäne Wachau who are based in the eponymous region, one of the largest and most important in all of Austria. Set along the banks of the Danube, the winery gets grapes from its hundreds of members who each supply in the form of a co-operative. This allows for a selection of the many varied vineyard sites, each that offer alternative flavours and quality profiles in the grapes grown, predominantly Grüner Veltliner, but also with growing volumes of Riesling. Their single site wines are spectacular, complex, age-worthy and rewarding, while their entry-level wines lose nothing of the charm and quality that the headline acts proffer, just at a different level.

This one is taken just from their steep slopes along the Danube for which the Wachau is famous, and blends to get this superb and wonderfully well-priced wine.