From the warmest, south-west facing part of the cru on coralline limestone and aged in up to 15% new and 90% older pièces, the 2020 Ried Zieregg Steilriegel Morillon GSTK offers a deep, pure, intense and aromatic, dense, herbal and chalky bouquet of crushed limestones, iodine and lemon juice (and rind). It's very tonic but also straight, revealing the complexity of an outstanding terroir. On the palate, this is a pure, lush and very elegant, velvety-textured, bright, dense and highly complex Steilriegel with lemon freshness on the balanced, intense and salty finish. This is a luscious but refined, very generous yet elegant and balanced, highly tensioned and promising Chardonnay from this Zieregg plot that is characterized by brown earth topping the coralline limestone. 13% stated alcohol. Glass stopper. Tasted in May 2023. - SR

I love the toasted baguette nose of this youthful Styrian chardonnay. Still very leesy on the powerful and highly structured palate, this really needs some time to open up. At the present, only a hint of herbal character and almost zero fruit. This is a style we haven’t encountered in this region before so the rating is a cautious product of gut instinct. From organically grown grapes. Unfiltered. Best after 2025. Glass stopper.