2016 Emmerich Knoll "Steiner Pfaffenberg" Riesling

AN AUSTRIAN ICON THAT BELONGS IN ANY COLLECTION: EMMERICH KNOLL
The Emmerich Knoll wines are immediately recognizable by sommeliers and collectors across the planet for the famously garish label depicting St. Urban, a patron saint of winegrowers. Simply put these are some of the most profound, special white wines in the wine world, and the truth is half of what most of us receive each year id eaten up by wine trade folks in tasting groups. They're absolute classics in a blind tasting, and represent the paradigm of Austria's Wachau whites for both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. If you're new to Grüner Veltliner, it's the most planted white grape in Austria and the grape upon which most of Austria's wine reputation has been built. In a turn along the Danube River in the Wachau region in the village of Durnstein, you'll find Emmerich Knoll's vineyards, planted into the interesting loess (wind-swept silt) and gneiss (high temperature, high pressure schist) soils, which lend intense crystal clear minerality to these wines. These belong in any cellar of any collector who appreciates world-class, nervy, unoaked mineral-driven styles. These elusive Smaragd bottlings are the richest wines of the estate, while the Federspiel are the lean, more mineral-driven classics. We also have a tiny parcel of Emmerich Knoll's Blauer Burgunder (Austrian Pinot Noir), a wine that he humbly tried to hide from us, but his neighbor Michael Malat spilled the beans that it is truly special.