In Alzinger's hands Loibenberg reaches a rare level of delicacy and intricacy.

Today, we celebrate Alzinger's Loibenberg, one of Austria's most famous sites.

Alzinger's Loibenberg is muscular and overtly powerful. Still, it possesses a walk-on-tiptoe quality that's revelatory. No one does intensity and detail quite like Alzinger. And that signature is always on bold display in the Loibenberg.

As most of you are sadly aware, the problem with Alzinger is the quantities. Alzinger is only 10ha and the wines are doled out in painfully small quantities. Top wines, like Riesling Loibenberg, are typically allocated in 6-24 bottle quantities. I bring that up just to warn you that quantities are extremely limited.

2015 joins 2013 and 2007 as one of the top Austrian vintages of the decade. The wines are vibrant and pure with a layered complexity. It's a vintage with a fair amount of ripeness, but also with a captivating, cool fruit profile, clarity of expression and detail.

It's easy to imagine how Alzinger would thrive in these conditions. Both the Loibenberg Riesling and Grüner drive this home. The Riesling soars with notes of salty, rocky minerality and stone fruits. There's tons of finesse. The Grüner has a similar underpinning of saline and stony minerality, but also a fleshier and more forceful presentation of herbs, spice and moist earth. The Grüner has plenty of presence yet comes across with a beautiful airy quality.

Anytime that we offer Alzinger, we get nervous. There's always a rush of orders and the need to allocate at the end of the day. Give us your maximum order and we'll allocate accordingly.

To order, email offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.

Joe Salamone

Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits

2015 Alzinger Loibenberg Riesling & Grüner Veltliner Smaragd

Riesling Smaragd

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate: "Mainly from a separated, rather coolish parcel of the Loibenberg where the sunset is already in the late afternoon, the 2015 Riesling Smaragd Loibner Loibenberg displays a very pure, precise and stony bouquet that is significantly cooler than all the other Loibenbergs of the Wachau. Full-bodied yet lean and very elegant this is a firmly structured, very mineral and expressive Riesling with a great finesse and personality. This wine is full of tension, salt and stones, a highlight of the Wachau Riesling culture."

Grüner Veltliner Smaragd

Stephan Reinhardt, The Wine Advocate: "From the central part of the Loibenberg, and thus with more loess on the terraces (so a deeper soil), Alzinger's 2015 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibenberg offers a very clear and elegant bouquet with tobacco and white-pepper aromas intermixed with ripe, white-fruit aromas. Round, piquant and intense on the palate this full-bodied and rich Veltliner reveals a densely woven texture and a long and aromatic finish with a nice salinity in the finish. Very juicy and charming in its intensity and generous ripeness. Pretty stimulating for such a rich wine."