Go through the pass into Austria and motor a few hours on the autostrada east and you’ll get to the Wachau Valley, home of the country’s finest wines. And, perhaps, its finest winemaker: Lucas Pichler, son of the legendary F.X.  He has taken his father’s legacy of creating some of the region’s most ebullient and exotic wines and burnished them to a pure, crystalline shine where the personality of each of the organically-farmed vineyards he farms is expressed with incredible transparency and precision.  Pichler’s Gruners are the gold standard for quality in the appellation, and Luca’s Federspiel (a designation for a wine with natural potential alcohol between 11.5 and 12.5%), besides being the perfect weight and mineral zippiness for oysters, is brilliantly dry and just filled with character!  Mouthwatering, savory, minty and utterly delicious, it has the requisite richness and freshness to cut through all kinds of fried foods- like, say, a Wiener Schnitzel (the usual call with a Gruner in Austria) and, with salads piled high with fresh herbs, it’s simply amazing.  This outstanding wine will also age effortlessly for a decade or more.