2016 Hirsch Ried Zobinger Gaisberg 1OTW Riesling Kamptal

Hirsch's 2016 Kamptal Riesling Gaisberg 1ÖTW offers a beautifully clear, fine and concentrated white stone fruit aroma intertwined with flinty flavors. On the palate, the wine is pure, salty and very intense but well structured and vital—a true terroir wine with tension, grip and enormous length. I'd recommend keeping this tonic Riesling for at least three or four years. Tasted as a sample at the end of June 2017, two weeks before bottling. Johannes Hirsch continues to produce very clear, vital and digestible wines with bright fruit and a food-friendly structure. The Rieslings and Veltliners—all farmed biodynamic—are finessed and possess a great definition and clarity. With the 2015 vintage, Hirsch has introduced a new Grüner Veltliner from the Kammerner Gaisberg. It contains a bit of Riesling (8%) that is also planted on the upper terraces of the 1ÖTW site. In 2015 both varieties were harvested and processed separately before the assemblage whereas they were fermented together in 2016. The upper Gaisberg terraces are very poor, and the vines root partly in mica schist, which gives the Gaisberg Grüner Veltliner a very distinctive character. Hirsch's series of 2016s is one of the finest in Lower Austria.(SR)