A sign of the vintage, Hirtzbergers achieved a deliciously light, 11.5% alcohol, refreshing, 2010 Gruner Veltliner Steinfeder Donaugarten, yet did not pick most of these grapes until the 27th and 28th of October! Iodine and fruit pip inflect herb-infused pear and lemon in this buoyant, subtly silken-textured performance that should be enjoyed over the next couple of years.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