Pichler-Krutzler Riesling Loibenberg 2012

100% Riesling. Pichler-Krutzler from Austria's famed Wachau region is Erich Krutzler and his wife Elisabeth Pichler-Krutzler, the son-in-law and daughter of F.X. Pichler. Erich is a very serious and talented winemaker in his own right, having inherited a great Blaufraenkisch vineyard in Suedburgenland from his family estate, Krutzler, where he was for several years the winemaker, and has had a couple of international award-winning projects in Slovenia.

Erich and Elisabeth now have 28 acres of vines. Their viticulture is "sustainable." They use no insecticides, only organic manure as fertilizer, and gentle tilling of the soil. In the vinification, Erich and Elisabeth use indigenous yeasts for all cuvees except in an occasional year for the spring-bottled wines. For all of the top wines, like Supperin, Loibenberg, Pfaffenberg, and Kellerberg, fermentation is done with indigenous yeasts in wood foudre from Stockinger of varying sizes up to 1,500 L, between one and eight years, not toasted. Because Erich has a vineyard of Blaufrankisch in the Suedburgenland, they are not members of Vinea Wachau Nobilis Districtus. This gives Erich the flexibility, though, to do things in vinification that he feels are more natural, and indeed he is very proud that they use no additives like finings in their wines and keeping their wines sometimes on the fine lees with very low sulfur dioxide for up to a year.