Prager dinner, or, Adrian drinks dry riesling

PRAGER DINNER WITH ROBERT BODENSTEIN - Chicago, IL (9/14/2017)

Grüner Veltliner

• 2012 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  Probably the most muted and restrained of all the GVs that we had tonight. I liked the kaffir lime flavours here, and the palate, that had a nice touch of green that was never over the top. There’s a little bit of sweetness that balances the heightened acidity and green that I really like here, but all in all I expected a slightly more complex wine. (93 pts.)
• 2013 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  To me, this was probably the most rounded and full-bodied of the wines in this flight. I also didn’t find this too complex, but I did love the balance between the bit of sweetness and green here again. This didn’t have quite as much mineral cut and acidity as the rest of the wines (perhaps a function of this being the second-hottest vintage on record). Easy-going and approachable now. (93 pts.)
• 2015 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Wachstum Bodenstein - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  Of the three Wachsstum Bodenstein GVs we had, I would say that this was my favourite, perhaps because of the young wine flavours that this still had. There’s that delicious white peach/green Thai herb thing going on here that is really addictive. This bottle also had the most bracing acidity. Obviously young, but pretty delicious nonetheless. (93 pts.)
• 2015 Prager Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Achleiten - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  Of the GVs we had tonight, I would say this was my overall favourite. This was the most linear and precise of the wines, showing a good dose of acidity and a strong mineral backbone. On top of that was the freshness and zestiness of the young vintage. Fresh white pineapple notes on the nose and palate are really prominent. (93 pts.)

Achleiten Riesling

• 2015 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  In comparison to the GVs, I think the 2015 rieslings (both this and the Klaus) seemed to suffer a bit from being so young. This didn’t feel like it had fully integrated yet, with the mineral aspects not in sync with the fruit (it felt like you were tasting them separately). A bit interesting to me as well was the attenuated acidity here, which I thought detracted from the experience. (93 pts.)
• 2013 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  This is a dry riesling that seems to have benefitted from the riper vintage, which bestowed on this wine some honeyed tones, as well as a bit of sweetness from the riper fruit. Despite that, there is some serious cut at the same time, which makes this a pretty good package. It’s plausible that the two extra years of bottle age are what it takes to transform something like the (relatively unintegrated) 2015 to this. (93 pts.)
• 2000 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  To my palate, this was stewy and heat-damaged; interestingly, the 2000 Klaus also suffered the same fate. (93- pts.)
• 1999 Prager Riesling Smaragd Achleiten - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  An outstanding dry riesling, perhaps because it didn’t really come off as a super dry riesling at all. There are a few slight petrol notes that remind you that this is old riesling, but the real story here is that this wine is in an almost classic Kabinett style. There’s some really nice yellow stone fruit here that lends the illusion of residual sugar. Couple this with a bit of green herbs and crisp minerality and you get a really good wine. (93 pts.)

Klaus Riesling

• 2015 Prager Riesling Smaragd Klaus - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  This wine is clearly a sibling of the Achleiten. There’s no way around that conclusion. The difference here is that the Achleiten is a bit more fruit forward, rounder, and sweeter, while the Klaus shows a bit more steely, with more of a focus on salinity and minerality. This is a little more austere, which I found made it a little more difficult to enjoy in comparison. (93 pts.)
• 2012 Prager Riesling Smaragd Klaus - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  Of the Klaus wines we tasted, this was the most lean, mineral, and taut. I found myself wishing for a little bit more sweetness or fruitiness to balance out all that mineral salinity. In addition, I found this showing a bit more green as well. (93 pts.)
• 2000 Prager Riesling Smaragd Klaus - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  Like the Achleiten, stewy and likely heat-damaged. (93- pts.)
• 1999 Prager Riesling Smaragd Klaus - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau
  In theory, I should have liked this wine more than the Achleiten – it’s a bit more complex, showing some smokiness, and more minerality and salinity – a chablisienne analogue, perhaps? But it ends up sliding a little more austere for my palate, even though it’s incredibly easy to see the resemblance between the two wines. If you dig for it, you can find a bit of the sweet fruit that I loved so much in the Achleiten, but at the end of the day, I much preferred that wine for its more easy-going disposition. (93 pts.)

Kind of surprised they poured wines from 2000 at a winemaker dinner like this. In retrospect, a difficult vintage with a lot of bottle variation.

I do like Prager a lot, though - sounds like a good tasting.

Nice tasting, Adrian. I’ve been impressed by the couple Prager rieslings I’ve had.

It was Robert Bodenstein in attendance; he mentioned that on account of his age and the 2002 floods that he himself had never tasted the older vintages. I’m not familiar myself with the Wachau vintages – what happened in 2000?

This was my first experience with the wines. I must admit I found them on the whole quite good, despite my general dislike of dry riesling, and I am immensely glad that I made the decision to attend the dinner.

You grade on the 92.999999 to 93.000001 scale?

It’s good to hear that the 1999s & 2000s weren’t prem-ox’ed, because I had been very worried about the aging curve of some of the Prager wines from that era.

Circa 2001, the corks were very smooth & had this weird grey-blue gunk on them which looked suspiciously like silicone [rather than paraffin]…

Still worried about those 2001 corks.

Great wines!

(before I read it I was sure that all were worth 93 points …)
(… even when heat-damaged …)

2000 was a very hot vintage, further complicated by rain at the harvest. I have had some very good wines from this vintage, but also some real duds (and oftentimes from the same producer), so like I said, bottle variation was prevalent. I would think that most 2000’s should be in the “drink now” section of anyone’s cellar. Having said all that, my last “taste/look” at the vintage was a pretty nice Hirtzberger Singerriedel

Nice. Love Prager.

In general, the 2000’s have not aged well. Gone to flab mostly but the Prager’s have been the exception.