The 2004 Gruner Veltliner Privat – as per usual – comes from 40 to 50-year-old vines in a lower section of the Piri, and Nigl gave this fruit – harvested November 26-27 – an entire day of skin contact before pressing. The results are little short of spectacular. Lilac, fennel and white pepper aromas lead to a rich, full-bodied, creamy, silken, yet always insistently bright mouthful of fruit, nut oils, and liquid stone. The finish here is cool in its measured ripeness, juicy, minerally, soothing, expansive, and riveting in its complexity. Given the track record set by Nigl’s best Gruner Veltliner, figure this has at least a dozen years of fascinating cellar development ahead of it – which is, however, by no means to say you will be cheating yourself to drink it now.