Alzinger Ried Loibenberg Riesling Smaragd 2024 Reasonable Cellar The Chardonnay sees a touch

The Chardonnay sees a touch of skin contact during fermentation

and long enough that he essentially helped build the modern Cap Classique category

but Agusti Torello Roca thinks it deserves better

off-piste find for anyone who follows the natural side of the Cote d'Or

Alzinger Ried Loibenberg Riesling Smaragd 2024 Reasonable Cellar The Chardonnay sees a touchLoibenberg is the warmest of the great Wachau sites, a wall of sun baked terraces climbing 200 meters above the Danube on barren primary rock. Leo Alzinger farms it for tension as much as power, and this Smaragd, the ripest dry tier in the region, threads concentration through a frame that stays nervy and precise. Spontaneously fermented and raised in steel with a touch of neutral Austrian oak, it shows what Wachau Riesling can do when nobody gets in