Wine (and maps) of the Week: Domane Wachau Riesling, Ried Achleiten, 2019

Here is an uncontroversial statement: Some of the best value wines in the world are the lesser-known classics. Classic styles benefit from years of winemaking, and viticultural, know-how to get things right. And when they are lesser-known (not looking at you, Burgundy), the price does not follow accordingly.

Enter Austrian Riesling, which, in addition to fulfilling the above criteria, benefits from being Riesling, which makes it even more obscure to the wine-drinking masses. Great news for us.

Domane Wachau’s Ried Achleiten (Smaradg) is a Riesling-loving wine nerd’s dream: a subtle touch of petrol, attractive stone fruits, quince, and stony minerality with a pure lemony finish. Full, waxy texture, opulent, but bone dry. Delicious – and likely even better in a few years.

While at $55 it’s hardly an inexpensive option, you’re getting a lot of wine – and detail – for your money, especially if you have a cellar to lay it in for the next 10 years.

But there’s more for the nerds: While revising Austrian wine this week, I happened upon a AustrianVineyards.com. It allows you to search for detailed information on every vineyard in Austria, which represents something of a rabbit hole for of us who enjoy a bit of wine study.

For example, here’s where we are in Austria:

And then if you zoom in further, you can see that we’re in the heart of the famous Wachau region:

Keep going and you can see the single vineyards that line the Danube river just outside of the town of Weissenkirchen:

And finally, the vines themselves:

As well as finding detailed climate and topographical information, we also learn about the origins of the vineyard’s name: “The name part “Ach-” refers to a watercourse (Lat. aqua) while”-leiten” refers to the precipitous slope.” Very literal, then.

And very tasty.

The 2020 and 2016 vintages of Domane Wachau’s Smaragd, Ried Achleiten, are both available locally at Mr D. for $56.55. Thank you to Wines of Austria for sending this over for tasting (and then inspiring me to write about it after I chanced upon your crazy vineyard website.)