Rudi Pichler Weissburgunder Smaragd Kollmtz 2016

Fresh apple and apple skin dominate both nose and palate, vivid and primary, with a pleasing tang. What's missing is the textural generosity, the creaminess, that makes Pinot Blanc so often seductive; this is leaner and more austere than the variety typically promises. Yet it compensates with a finish of surprising vitality, a crackling glow of corn shoot and a lucid thread of chalk and crushed stone beneath the fruit. Worth revisiting to see whether time coaxes a more supple texture into place, the way a good wine develops a kind of earned complexity with age.