2012 Pichler Krutzler Gruner Veltliner Klostersatz (Geographic Region / Imports / Austria)

90pts(RP) The sense of stuffing conveyed in the corresponding Frauenweingarten bottling is enhanced in Pichler and Krutzler’s 2012 Gruner Veltliner Klostersatz – which was raised in cask with longer lees-contact – by silken texture and deceased yeast nuances. Stony, cyanic, and mouthwateringly saline notes invigoratingly and intriguingly inflect a matrix of peach, grapefruit and green bean, leading to an exuberant and refreshing finish. Here yet one more demonstration – of which F. X. Pichler’s Riesling from the adjacent Oberhauser offers the consistently most striking – that a nearly-flat, gravelly site can by dint of superior drainage or other factors play in the same Wachau league as wines from steep Urgestein sites. Plan to follow it through at least 2018. Robert Parker