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In the lower alcohol wines, 2017 largely turns out very well, as can be seen from a long line of pleasing Federspiele. In the Smaragd and Prestige wines, the line between power and heaviness was rather narrow; it depended very much on the site and above all on the winemaker's skill in keeping the alcohol power in check and contrasting it with sufficient backbone, substance, depth and finesse. The acids also fluctuate between very restrained and surprisingly present.
Not all producers managed this balancing act equally well. Really weak wines are very rare, but there are some where a second glass can be exhausting. With others, you can only marvel at how well their makers have managed the balancing act: for all their power, the best wines are taut, brilliantly pure, lively, animatingly juicy and mineral. The minerality in particular often seems to be the deciding factor, because it gives the wines backbone and also a cool element. Actually, one would like to assume that Riesling has clear advantages in such vintages due to its higher acidity, but the results hardly show such a tendency.
This year we tasted around 170 wines from the Wachau. As always, we present the best of them here and here. as PDF before. Unfortunately, no wines were presented to us by some of the top wineries, which is why we refrain from presenting them at BEST OF this year.
Links to all wines with detailed descriptions in the wine guide can be found by clicking on the respective headings.