WTN: Heavy fuel

2006 F.X. Pichler Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibner Berg
At 15% alcohol this is quite the heavyweight. This certainly isn't about subtlety, making an impact straight away with powerful white fruited, green bean, floral and herbal aromatics and intense fruit and minerality on the first sip. It's very rich and powerful but impressively structured with bright acids and the alcohol in balance; there's a lot of depth to the flavours as this keeps evolving and expanding with air, serious length and just a faint hint of warmth on the back end. Despite that, the whole package is very enjoyable right now but I'd imagine this would be better to drink now.

[David M. Bueker]

Cool. I do agree that drinking these high-octane Austrians now is the best approach.

Are the 2007's as big? Those are the Pichlers that I have.

[David M. Bueker]

2007 is a more balanced vintage.

2007 is a more balanced vintage.

Good to hear, I have one measly bottle of Pichler's 2007 M and was trying not to catch in a closed stage, but then didn't want it to fall apart either.

Rahsaan,
no time to waste! The 07 GV M is not, repeat not, getting better. I had my last bottle in fall 2009 and it had already turned too flabby for my taste. Hopefully your cellar is colder than mine and your palate more forgiving!

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Good to hear, I have one measly bottle of Pichler's 2007 M and was trying not to catch in a closed stage, but then didn't want it to fall apart either.

I don't think it should. While I haven't had that particular '07 from FX, the others I've had were all very well structured and balanced and I reckon they'll be great over the long haul. The couple of older bottles of M I've had ('01 Riesling and '97 GV) both were aging very nicely, the GV coming across quite young when I had it last.

Rahsaan,
no time to waste! The 07 GV M is not, repeat not, getting better. I had my last bottle in fall 2009 and it had already turned too flabby for my taste. Hopefully your cellar is colder than mine and your palate more forgiving!

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

Ouch. My palate is not very forgiving of flabbiness. Will just have to hope that yours was a bad stage. Will try to open it soon.

Rahsaan,
no time to waste! The 07 GV M is not, repeat not, getting better. I had my last bottle in fall 2009 and it had already turned too flabby for my taste. Hopefully your cellar is colder than mine and your palate more forgiving!

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

That's strange. My bottle has not seen perfect storage but was anything but flabby tonight. Intense and rich sure, but firm, focused, minerally, even 'light' in certain respects. An impressive wine. I don't have much experience with this bottling so I can't compare it to much, but it was definitely delightful today. Bottle variation? Stages?

[David M. Bueker]

Rahsaan,
no time to waste! The 07 GV M is not, repeat not, getting better. I had my last bottle in fall 2009 and it had already turned too flabby for my taste. Hopefully your cellar is colder than mine and your palate more forgiving!

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

That's strange. My bottle has not seen perfect storage but was anything but flabby tonight. Intense and rich sure, but firm, focused, minerally, even 'light' in certain respects. An impressive wine. I don't have much experience with this bottling so I can't compare it to much, but it was definitely delightful today. Bottle variation? Stages?

How about the inherent uselessness of wildly subjective terms like "flabby." Or to switch it around, there was a period when people (on another site) were calling the 2003 Christoffels (remember the ones that blew through at cut prices on the gray market) "racy." I have also been at events where people have called '96 Germans "too soft."

How about the inherent uselessness of wildly subjective terms like "flabby." Or to switch it around, there was a period when people (on another site) were calling the 2003 Christoffels (remember the ones that blew through at cut prices on the gray market) "racy." I have also been at events where people have called '96 Germans "too soft."

Sure. Lots of subjectivity to the analysis. But your examples sound like people who are just plain idiotic. Wouldn't want to say that about Frederik!

Although I would defy anyone to call last night's bottle flabby. Some bottles are more prone to straddle multiple interpretations, but this one wasn't.

Anyway, it was a very good wine, but obviously too expensive. I bought it on a ridiculous Weygandt sale earlier this year but wouldn't pay full price.