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
Established in 1898 in Oberloiben, Weingut F.X. Pichler stands as one of the pinnacle estates of Austria's Wachau valley. Elevated to international legend status under Franz Xaver Pichler from 1971 onward, the domain is directed today by seventh-generation winemaker Lucas Pichler alongside his wife Johanna. The estate stewards approximately 20 hectares of vines, largely centered on precipitous, hand-carved dry-stone terraces of primary rock, weathered gneiss, amphibolite, and loess. Benefiting from the climatic tension between warm Pannonian airflows and cool Alpine drafts along the Danube, Pichler crafts monumental, dry white wines of chiselled mineral precision, depth, and longevity. The family shifted to certified organic viticulture and voluntarily departed the Vinea Wachau hierarchy to prioritize terroir-driven Wachau DAC site typicity. Its benchmark portfolio includes single-vineyard expressions from Ried Kellerberg, Loibenberg, and Steinertal, alongside the cult cuvées 'M' and the transcendent 'Unendlich'.
🍇 Grapes
Riesling
🍷 ABV
13% - 14%