A fine bottle of Riesling

This is clearly a glass of class.

[image image_id=”2431″] Riesling Smaragd “Achleiten” 2005, Weingut Prager

A very pure nose of lemon fruit and stony minerality; this smells subtle and beautiful. The fruit is perfectly ripe and just lovely. Serious complexity here. Oddly for an Austrian wine this doesn’t smell of white pepper; I’d be hard pressed to tell this was Austrian if I was presented it blind. The complexity of the concentrated aromas make you well aware you are about to have a taste of something with serious class. There is density and an incredible depth of flavour to the palate, but it is kept bursting with fizzing life by its great acidity and brilliant minerality. It is very long. I suppose this will age very well, but if I had another bottle I’d pop it within the next six months; it is just gorgeous now. Both intellectually rewarding and full of an almost lewd amount of visceral pleasure.