Catch a Hirtzberger in the right vintage and they are magical.
When you talk to Austria fanatics about the best wines they've had, Hirtzberger comes up again and again. They are masterpieces of brilliance and scale.
It's clear that 2015 is an important vintage for Hirtzberger. Even at this early stage, the wines are stunning.
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Hirtzberger's wines are multidimensional and insanely complicated. On one register, they are glossy, richly complex wines that roll across the palate with velvet and satin. But that's only half the story. They are also tense, rigorous and elegant wines. The magic lies in how both are seamlessly integrated.
Hirtzberger is located at the far Western end of the Wachau, where the Danube steers south. This region is called the "Spitz", and a break in the mountains that border the Wachau to the north allows the cold northern winds to rush down into the Spitz. It is this cooling air that gives these wines the tension and nervosity that propels their enormous scale and dynamic complexity.
Hochrain displays a firm core of finely etched minerals and a sense of aristocratic breeding. His Riesling Singerriedel stands in contrast with its stately, apricot-inflected richness. There may be no wine in Austria (or the world) that's able to integrate so much depth and complexity into a harmonious and regal wine the way that Singerriedel does.
The 2015 vintage in Austria produced shimmering, pure wines with layered fruit and firm, vibrant and detailed mineral cores. It's a really beautiful combination and it's easy to see why people are already calling 2015 one of the top vintages of the past decade.
Hirtzberger's wines are clearly one of the strongest collections of the vintage. Their track record for aging is impressive. The 2015s seem poised to age beautifully.
To order, email offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463.
Joe Salamone
Wine Buyer
Crush Wine & Spirits