2007 Emmerich Knoll Riesling Kellerberg Smaragd

Emmerich Knoll

Austria / Wachau / Emmerich Knoll

Pale green-yellow.
Mandarin orange aroma with a pronounced flinty overlay.
Medium to full in body, with a firm acid structure giving definition and a juicy quality to the peach and mandarin orange flavors of this very elegant wine.
Conveys a strong impression of vineyard character in its combination of flinty minerality and citrus and stone fruit flavors.
This firmly structured, stylish wine offers outstanding potential for further development.

Ian D'Agata

Vinous Media

93 points

I can’t think of too many better ways to start a meal than with a Riesling, and just about anything from Austria’s star producer Emmerich Knoll is as great a place to start as any. Knoll’s 2007 Ried Kellerberg Dursteiner Smaragd Riesling is drinking beautifully, offering exotically ripe aromas and flavors of mandarin orange, ripe peach and cardamom. It’s a rather Rubenesque beauty, concentrated and full-bodied, but with enough lively acidity to keep it in balance. Its finishing notes of smoky minerals match well with the complex Parmigiano dish and it has enough sweetness to stand up to the “almost too much of a good thing” foie gras dish (if you’ve never seen or eaten a foie gras popsicle look-alike, this is the place!). Though this Riesling is likely to be long-lived, Knoll’s Kellerberg Smaragd always strikes me as approachable earlier than its Schütt stablemate, and especially so in 2007.

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About Emmerich Knoll

"This winery has produced so many cult wines over the last decades that it would not be a problem to fill an entire book with their tasting notes." So goes the Falstaff Ultimate Wine Guide's entry on Knoll, pronounced with a K. The winery uses exclusively old oak foudres and implements a winemaking philosophy that places varietal site expression at the forefront. Emmerich Knoll senior is a thoughtful, quiet man; the opposite of Emmerich junior, cosmopolitan and modern in his approach. The Knolls have holdings in all the best sites, as exemplified by their success in the now infamous UK tasting where an aged Knoll Grüner beat a field of Grand Cru white Burgundies. The unmistakable labels bearing the image of Saint Urban, the patron saint of winegrowing, are a reminder that tradition is the watchword here. But what isn’t so obvious is that Emmerich Knoll’s wines are sheer joy to drink — now or far into the future.

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