Franz Hirtzberger, Riesling Ried Steinporz Smaragd, 2024 german_wines-template A finely structured Grand Cru

A finely structured Grand Cru that balances depth and lift from one of Burgundy’s rising stars

Pour it cool in a small glass after dinner

or other classicists who like their Syrah unpolished but precise

Thirty years of patient maturation from one of Port's oldest houses

the 2022 Zinfandel from Matthiasson showcases a more restrained

Franz Hirtzberger, Riesling Ried Steinporz Smaragd, 2024 german_wines-template A finely structured Grand CruSteinporz is one of the great primary rock crus of Spitz, and in Hirtzberger's hands it makes a Smaragd Riesling that's more vertical than wide all elevation, mineral, and lift. The site is steep, terraced, gneiss based; the wines are built around tension rather than richness. 2024 delivered a vintage of poise and clarity, and this bottle shows it: stone fruit edged in citrus zest, a wash of crushed rock, the savory mineral grip that Wachau Smaragd