The Vineyard: Hochrain is a mountain vineyard with south-east orientation. Here deep patches of loess were preserved on the slopes, ensuring a good nutrient supply and also significantly shaping the styles of the wines. The wines from loess, above all Grüner Veltliner, exhibit a broader, intense structure. The Wachau region remained free of ice during the glacial periods and persistent westerly winds deposited thick layers of loess particularly on the east slopes facing away from the wind, which forms the subsoil of the Hochrain vineyard today. Loess is mainly characterised by high concentrations of carbonate-rich silt, a soil of a grain size fraction between sand and clay, which is readily transported by wind. The mineral composition of loess is dominated by quartz, feldspar, mica, clay minerals and calcite (carbonate). Iron oxides give the loess a yellowish-brown color. 

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.