94 pts Vinous
The 2023 Riesling Terrassen Smaragd is from vines that are around 60 years old, grown on elevated, stony terraces across the estate. There is still a touch of reduction; underneath that is fine citrus. The palate is bright, stony and almost breezy, but with wonderful concentration and drive. The finish delves into zest and leaves a long trail of freshness. Lovely. (Bone-dry)

Vineyards: Terrassen indicates it is a cuvée from multiple terraced sites. Yields are kept low between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare with botrytis carefully removed by hand. 

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.