Bottled in June 2016, this texturally silken, supremely elegant effort transparently and kaleidoscopically combines moss, wet stone, gentian, buddleia, coriander, pepper, piquant yet rich nut oils and a saline clam broth savor that milks the salivary glands. But besides this impressive array of non-fruity components, white peach and lemon deliver abundant primary juiciness and animating tang, rendering the finish as invigorating and refreshing as it is vibrant, mouthwatering and dynamically complex. Given all of the experience we now have with Austrian Riesling and Gr?ner Veltliner of this vintage, high hopes were bound to have been riding on the latest edition of Steiner Hund. Happily, they have not been disappointed! (And in another decade or two, we can look forward to the bottling and release of at least one 2013 installment in the Nikolaihof?s Vinothek collection.)

The golden-yellow colored 2013 Steiner Hund Riesling opens with an intense and concentrated dark fruit aroma with flinty notes of perfectly ripe and concentrated stone fruits. On the palate, this is a rich, ripe, pure, finessed and concentrated Riesling with great elegance and a very long and aromatic finish, stimulating salinity and flavors of marjoram. It is a great and complex dry Riesling that weighs in at just 12.5% alcohol. It is marketed as Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), although it comes from the Kremstal; but, for several reasons Nikolaus Saahs doesn't want to follow the DAC system.