94 pts Vinous
The 2023 Weissburgunder Terrassen Smaragd is from 45- 60-year-old vines in the Kollmütz vineyard. It unites a touch of smokiness with some crushed yarrow and pure lemon, promising complexity from the off. The palate is the Pichler streamline, the focus on stoniness united with the slender grace of Pinot Blanc, with its subtle texture. This creates a disarming combo of stone and gentle, bright, white fruit. The finish is smooth, fresh and elegant. (Bone-dry) - By Anne Krebiehl MW on May 2024

The Vineyard: Grown on terraces with soils of Gföhl gneiss and loess, the old vines produce a minerally wine with plenty of fruit and vibrant acidity.  Most of this comes from Kollmutz that you can read about above in the GV section.

Anne Krebiehl MW (Vinous) on May 2024:
“Exciting” is how Rudi Pichler described 2023. The estate sustained some hail damage in late August in the lowest-lying and highest Riesling parcels; hence, there is no Riesling Federspiel this year. Pichler quickly adds that those further east, in Kamptal, were hit much worse. He said that several theories did the rounds regarding hail-damaged bunches: some insisted that since affected grapes had dried out, they would not make a difference during skin contact, “but we decided to sort them all out completely and painstakingly.” This was only possible by recruiting many more pickers from friends and family and then dealing with all the extra admin this entails in Austria. “We managed it all, and that was a feat,” Pichler says. “It was the right decision.” Harvest started on 3 October and was done by mid-November – and the wines are as linear and taut as ever, even if the fruit flavors are in a riper spectrum.