Harvested November 3, the Hirtzberger 2010 Weissburgunder Smaragd Steinporz smells pungently of toasted hazelnut, apple pit and corn shoots, and displays a correspondingly piquant, though in typically Pinot Blanc fashion, at once creamy and refreshingly juicy palate impression. Bittersweet herbal and floral notes add further complexity to a lingering, both soothing and stimulating finish. This latest in a long line of beauties should continue to reward its owners for at least the next dozen years. I learned only this year that the Hirtzbergers’ portion of Steinporz – a vineyard largely planted with Gruner Veltliner – had until 1989 been devoted to Blaufrankisch and Blauer Portugieser, as it was thought (no doubt rightly) the best site in Spitz to (try to) ripen black grapes, a few remnants of which are still sprinkled amidst the Pinot Blanc! Given the penchant at this address for late harvest; considerable skin contact; and must aeration, I was not surprised to learn from Franz Hirtzberger Junior that only their Riesling Federspiel had been at all de-acidified. “If there’d been even a bit more hanging out there though,” he notes “then we wouldn’t have made it” – i.e. acheived ripe grapes. “We learned our lesson from 1996,” as Hirtzberger Senior saw it, namely not to harvest – despite ongoing crop loss and fear of ignoble rot (though in this case that didn’t materialize) – until the acids finally began to diminish and the skins to properly ripen. Importer: Vin Divino, Chicago, IL; tel. (773) 334-6700