HARM VIESSLINGER BRUCK RIESLING 2015

93-94 Points - David Schildknecht - Vinous - “Pungent yeastiness and hints of wood fortunately don’t disguise the abundance of nuanced and intriguing scents that anticipate this wine’s impressive performance. Fresh apple and white peach go on to dominate the show, while marjoram and black pepper, along with stony, crystalline, saline and smoky mineral notes, eventually serve for fascinating finishing counterpoint. Mint and gentian waft alluringly across a silken palate to cooling and bittersweet effect, and a hint of porcini points to a benign modicum of botrytis. “The grapes were lilac by the time we picked them,” reported Maria Harm, “almost as if they were Traminer.” Sappy intensity, palpably high extract, bright acidity, vibrant interaction and striking buoyancy born of a mere 12.3 percent alcohol all distinguish this beauty from the vast majority of 2015 vintage Austrian Rieslings. It was the exceptional aromatics of these grapes and their potential for advanced ripeness, incidentally, which persuaded the Harms to hold open their new cask to receive them on the estate’s last day of harvest, October 30."