The Weingartner's 2007 Riesling Smaragd Lobenberg brims with ripe peach and melon. Subtly creamy in texture, it nevertheless displays refreshing lime and grapefruit and impressive clarity in a finish dusted with site-typical white pepper, peach pit, and crushed stone. Here is a site captured with a minimum of botrytis interference, and a Riesling that should be worth following for 5-7 years. Roman Horvath and Heinz Frischengruber are on a roll now, so one wants to root for their retaining the marvelous value that has distinguished Freie Weingartner wines in their best periods, because top-flight Wachau wines at prices like theirs are scarcely available anywhere else. Yields on Gruner Veltliner in 2007 were a bit high for optimal, Frischengruber opines, but then, the yields in Riesling obviously came at the expense of botrytis. And it goes without saying that selectivity is a challenge in coop situations, even though one which the team here has previously proven themselves capable of meeting. Nearly 40% of production was picked as Steinfeder, a quality grade all but missing last year, and whose volume in this vintage permitted enhanced attention to the fruit that remained for Federspiel and Smaragd. All of the wines reviewed below are bottled under the -Domane Wachau- label.Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700.