WTN: Two from FX Pichler

2000 F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Von den Terrassen
Surprisingly advanced aromatics with honeyed and smoky elements mingled with bright white fruits and limes. Feels quite plush and round in the mouth with slightly soft acidity and ripe melon, lime and peach flavours over savoury earthy notes, finishing with a pleasant creaminess. Really good value at $23, though I don't see this getting much better in the future.

2002 F.X Pichler Riesling Smaragd Loibner Steinertal
Thrilling; this starts out incredibly minerally and angular with a mouthfeel that makes one wonder if this was chiselled straight from rocks. Over a couple of hours this keeps opening and changing, revealing bright orange blossom and white pepper aromatics and ripe melon, pear and lime fruit, while rounding out a bit in the mouth and taking on a slightly creamier texture, finishing very long and spicy. Awesome wine, glad I have more.

That's a very good price for the 2000 FX Pichler. Sometimes FX can be a little over the top for me but when they are balanced, damn good.

2000 F.X. Pichler Riesling Smaragd Von den Terrassen
Surprisingly advanced aromatics with honeyed and smoky elements mingled with bright white fruits and limes. Feels quite plush and round in the mouth with slightly soft acidity and ripe melon, lime and peach flavours over savoury earthy notes, finishing with a pleasant creaminess. Really good value at $23, though I don't see this getting much better in the future...

I'm guessing this is from our HDH case and initially the 'surprisingly advanced' had me worried. But then I saw the vintage. Have you had a lot of 2000 Austrian wines? From my limited experience it is not a strong vintage and should be showing very advanced.

Both wines were from the HDH case. I've only had a couple of other 2000s from Austria - one was the FX Kellerberg that was also quite developed in flavour profile but drinking very well, the other was a Hiedler Gaisberg that already seemed to be fading and on the downslope. Given that this was an FX Smaragd for $23 (even if it was a 2000) I reckoned it was worth the gamble - and it did turn out very well.

Given that this was an FX Smaragd for $23 (even if it was a 2000) I reckoned it was worth the gamble - and it did turn out very well.

That price can be worth the educational gamble and it sounds like there was plenty of pleasure as well.