Pictured on the Wachau page of Janis Robinson and Hugh Johnson’s World Atlas of Wine, along with the two Pichlers, Hirtzberger, and Prager, as a top producer of the Wachau, is the label of Josef Hogl. Funny thing, though, he is well known in Britain but had never been brought into the U.S. Hogl is on the opposite end of the Wachau from F.X. Pichler in the tiny village of Vessing, high above Spitz, and right in the vineyard. Here the two Rieds, Schon and Bruck, are the great parcels, especially in warm years (like ’02 and ’03). But Hogl also has vineyards right next to Pichler near Loibner, at the north end of the Wachau.
Josef, a very quiet and unassuming man, has a very clear style, all his own – wines very pure, and delineated, with precise, long flavors, they benefit from aging to gain amplitude; without losing their dazzling fineness.
