The Hirtzberger 2010 Grauburgunder Smaragd Pluris was not harvested until November 22, and even then at a, for this wine, unusually low alcohol of just 13%. Low-toned lightly-roasted coffee and chicory, artichoke and smoked meat broth make for an unusually piquant savor that could almost have come from a Gruner Veltliner. This finishes with invigorating piquancy, mouthwatering salinity, and persistent intrigue, a wine I would love to be able to play around with at table over the next 6-8 years. Given the penchant at this address for late harvest; considerable skin contact; and must aeration, I was not surprised to learn from Franz Hirtzberger Junior that only their Riesling Federspiel had been at all de-acidified. “If there’d been even a bit more hanging out there though,” he notes “then we wouldn’t have made it” – i.e. acheived ripe grapes. “We learned our lesson from 1996,” as Hirtzberger Senior saw it, namely not to harvest – despite ongoing crop loss and fear of ignoble rot (though in this case that didn’t materialize) – until the acids finally began to diminish and the skins to properly ripen. Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700