FX Pichler is the king of Gruner Veltliner. He manages to coax incredible floral intensity and complexity out of a grape that many are content to make pleasant but forgettable wines. If you want to be surprised how special Gruner Veltliner can be, give this Steinertal Smaragd a try. F.X. Pichler makes Gruner Veltliner that others only achieve rarely, if at all. Almost austere mineral clarity underlying the layers of evolving richness on the palate which make these truly great wines so impressive. The complex tones of ripe fruit come with alcohol contents of up to 14.5 per cent, but Pichler’s wines will stand up to this without any problem. Though his Gruner Veltliners may be the real revelation, his highly concentrated Rieslings and his Sauvignon blanc are equally famous and will age very happily for many years, if not decades. Pichler’s best Rieden are Kellerberg, Loibenberg and Steinertal. Pichler shares a distrust of very reductive vinification and high technology with other Wachau growers, believing that these would make his wines too uniform. He ferments them in large wooden barrels and leaves them there for about six months. Industrial yeasts are only used for the first consignment of must; after that, natural yeasts take over. --Philipp Blom, Wines of Austria