Prager Achleiten Riesling

Prager Achleiten Riesling

Wine Description

Toni Bodenstein describes the grapes from the grand-cru-like Achleiten vineyard as coming from “destroyed soil.” So prized has this walled vineyard been over the years that it has been worked down by man and by nature to a point where the coverage of soil is only 40 cm in some parts. The loess soils just barely cover the granitic rocks underneath and yield grapes with great minerality. The long growing season of this southeast-facing vineyard allows the grapes here to attain a level of richness and complexity not often found in cool climate wines. The resulting wines are a stunning mix of finesse and structure.

Achleiten is one of Austria's greatest vineyards and is known for producing wines with a distinctive mineral character. Achleiten sits near the town of Weissenkirchen with steep terraces that face the Danube between 200 and 400 meters of elevation. The vineyard has very little top soil with various Gneiss in its parent rock. The name Achleiten comes from the Latin "Ach" (aqua) and "Leiten" meaning a conduct for water. Wines from Achleiten have a signature aroma and flavor of flint, smoke and minerals.

Prager Vineyards
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Acclaim
“Hyacinth; Normandy cider-like apple; mint; and fresh lime feature on the nose and juicy, buoyant palate of Bodenstein’s 2010 Riesling Smaragd Achleiten. It combines extract and an attendant sense of residual sugar-free sweetness with, for Smaragd, surprising levity with transparency to both inner-mouth floral perfume and stony nuances that is typical for this great site. The rarified, cooling, soothing personality brings less energy to bear than many of the vintage’s best Rieslings and displays nowhere near the lusciousness of fruit of its Grüner Veltliner counterpart, but is nonetheless utterly winsome. Plan to savor this over the next 6-8 years.”
— Wine Advocate, Oct 2011
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Vineyard & Production Info
Vineyard name
The Achleiten vineyard
Vineyard size
5 acres
Soil composition
Gneiss, Rocky, and Silty-Loam
Elevation:
820-1,020 feet
Vines/acre:
2,960
Yield/acre:
1.7 tons
Exposure:
Southern / Southwestern
Year vineyard planted:
1952-1953
Harvest time:
November
First vintage of this wine:
1955
Bottles produced of this wine:
7,200
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Winemaking & Aging
Varietal composition:
100% Riesling
Fermentation container:
Stainless steel tanks
Length of alcoholic fermentation:
36 days
Fermentation temperature:
64 °F
Type of aging container:
Stainless steel tanks
Length of aging before bottling:
7 months
Length of bottle aging:
2 months
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Analytical Data
pH level:
3.3
Acidity:
6.5 g/L
Alcohol:
13.5 %
Dry extract:
24.7 g/L
Residual sugar:
2.3 g/L