2013 Franz Hirtzberger Grüner Veltliner Honivogl Smaragd

Franz Hirtzberger

Austria / Wachau / Franz Hirtzberger

The vineyard Honivogl is located at the bottom part of the Singerriedel. Every year we harvest here our best Grüner Veltliner grapes. The ground is rich in minerals, and this factor, coupled with its due south exposure gives us ideal conditions to produce this great wine.

Jancis Robinson

18.5/20

RS 3.5 g/l. Spectacularly rich nose. Very ample, intense and flattering. Smoked meat! Kerpow! Not flabby. Great structure. Amazing. 14%. Drink 2014-2024

Stephan Reinhardt

Wine Advocate

93 points

Super ripe, super rich, super fine and super elegant on the nose, the 2013 Gruner Veltliner Smaragd Honivogl is another (expensive) icon wine of the estate. Very rich, almost oily (at least viscous) and sweetish on the palate, this is a powerful and elegant though slightly saturating Veltliner. It will need some years to develop more freshness and transparency. Very baroque in style.

Kim Marcus

Wine Spectator

92 points

Very suave and lush-tasting, with a creamy richness to baked apple, ripe citrus and peach cobbler flavors. White pepper and baked lentil notes fill the finish. Drink now through 2020.

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About Franz Hirtzberger

The Hirtzberger family purchased its first vineyards in the village of Spitz in the late 1800s. The winery is situated at the western end of the Wachau - the part that's coolest and closest to the mountains. The terraced Singerriedel vineyard has brought the family near legendary status for its Riesling, while the Honivogl has done the same with Grüner Veltliner. Such sites, allied to an approach that’s simple in the extreme, lend the wines an often astonishing transparency and complexity.

About

"In every walk of life the best results are obtained as a result of care," says Franz Hirtzberger, adding, "this is especially true when it comes to the vine." He and his son, also Franz, now share responsibilities in the vineyard and the cellar in order to give the vine and its fruit all the time and attention possible in their quest for great wine. Wines are fermented in stainless steel and then aged in old oak barrels and sit stylistically somewhat apart from the rest. Spicy, exotic and perfectly poised, they nevertheless combine the opulence of FX Pichler with Prager’s racy purity.