Loibner Steinertal Riesling Smaragd
⏳ Drinking Window
2024 - 2042
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Wiener Schnitzel, roasted pork belly, pan-seared scallops
✨ Technical Specifications
The Steinertal vineyard, situated at the easternmost boundary of the Wachau, is a dramatic, amphitheater-like valley carved into the primary rock. Unlike its warmer neighbor Loibenberg, Steinertal is exposed to cool, draining winds from the northern forests, creating a unique microclimate that yields wines of piercing acidity, crystalline minerality, and intense aromatic complexity. F.X. Pichler's expression of Riesling from this site is legendary. Classified as 'Smaragd'—the highest quality tier of the Vinea Wachau, named after the emerald-green lizards that dart across the sun-warmed stone terraces—this wine is crafted from late-harvested, perfectly ripe grapes. The Pichler family utilizes gentle pressing and aging in large, neutral Austrian oak casks to allow the stark, flinty terroir of the Steinertal to shine through without oak dominance, resulting in a dry white wine of monumental structure, tension, and longevity.
🍾 About the Producer
Founded in 1898 in the village of Oberloiben in Austria's prestigious Wachau region, Weingut F.X. Pichler is globally celebrated as a benchmark producer of world-class white wines. Elevated to international renown by Franz Xaver (F.X.) Pichler and guided today by Lucas Pichler, the estate adheres to a meticulous viticultural philosophy centered on terroir precision, minimal cellar intervention, and the expression of ancient, primary rock terraces. Sourced from legendary steep vineyard sites such as Kellerberg, Loibenberg, and Steinertal, their dry white wines showcase extraordinary concentration, minerality, and tension. The winery is particularly famed for its powerful, age-worthy Grüner Veltliner and Riesling bottlings, highlighted by monumental flagship cuvées like 'Unendlich'.
🍇 Grape Varieties
Riesling
🍷 Alcohol By Volume (ABV)
13% - 14%