Nikolaihof, Baumpresse' Wachau Riesling, 2015

Nikolaihof is Austria's oldest documented winery — records of viticulture on this site in Mautern date to the 5th century — and since the 1970s it has been among Europe's pioneering biodynamic estates, Demeter-certified decades before the term became fashionable. The 'Baumpresse' takes its name from the traditional wooden basket press the estate still uses, a practice as old as the cellars themselves. The 2015 vintage in Wachau was a warm, classical year, and this Riesling has been evolving slowly in the estate's ancient Roman cellars under Christine Saahs's watchful eye. Mighty minerality is what you find here — the Danube terraces, the stone soils, and decades of biodynamic farming converging in a glass. This is wine with genuine history behind every sip.