Plain Wine Volume 13: The Hyperfresh Edition
This month we brought together a good mix of people with hyper-fresh wines. We have the Austrian hipster sisters, aka rennersistas with a very fresh red wine, a very down-to-earth winemaker from southern Germany with an outstanding Pet Nat and a purist from Spain showing us what Chardonnay can be as well.
Clot de les Soleres — 2017 Chardonnay — Penedès, Spain When in 1998 Carles Mora Ferrer started planting his first vines the family had abandoned making wine already almost 40 years ago. The finca is just an hour’s drive from Barcelona and is about 23 hectares big, but half of it they still sell to other wineries. First Carles wanted to make his own amphora aged wine with no interventions and later added more and more varietals including many indigenous Catalan ones. His wife Montse joined as well, and since 2008 they are making the wine without any additives in the cellar. They only make single varietal wines as they are very focused on bringing out the different flavors of the individual grape varieties.
This wine is the absolut purest expression of a very sun drenched Chardonnay. The soil is clay-calcareous and just adds to the complexity. After the harvest, it is directly pressed, and the juice slowly ferments in stainless steel. It is left to age in stainless steel for another 5 months until spring time. After bottling, they keep it for a little while to give it some rest and add more complexity. You get a very ripe flowery aroma, some honey and ripe pear which is still balanced with proper acidity and minerals. This will be really good with grilled chicken and vegetables.
rennersistas — 2018 Superglitzer — Zweigelt, St. Laurent, Rösler, Blaufränkisch — Burgenland, Austria After Stefanie had stints at Domaine Matassa with Tom Lubbe and at Tom Shobrook in Australia, she joined forces with her sister Susanne. They slowly made their own wines at their parents’ winery, which they started in 1988 in the village of Gols at Neusiedlersee. They asked their parents to pick the vineyards they liked the most and now make a growing amount of natural wines under the rennersistas label. Together they farm around 12 hectares and just recently transitioned all the vineyards from organic to biodynamic practices.
As some batches of their Waiting for Tom rose turned out too dark, they used the wine to create a new red wine. And it is a very glittery wine if you ask me. The grapes were handpicked in late August and early September. Each individual variety spent between eight days and two weeks with their skins. For some extra crunch, 15 percent were pressed as whole bunches. All of the grapes spent eight months in used barriques (225 liters) and huge foudre (3000 liters). With all the glitter you might be thinking where is the disco, and we can tell you it’s right in front of you, and you should have it chilled with PIZZA!
Thomas Harteneck — 2018 Prinz Noah Pet Nat — Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc — Baden, Germany The Harteneck family had made wine since 1847, back then in the Pfalz region of Germany. Since 1997 they are in Schliengen, a very sunny area in Baden, close to Alsace. They picked the place, especially for its mild climate and the soil — which is mainly loess and loam, which is perfect for very balanced and drinkable wines. They own about 10 hectares of vineyards. Thomas is a big fan of bio-dynamic farming and works according to the lunar calendar. Fortunately, he is slowly making more and more natural wines.
After the harvest, usually on fruit days according to the lunar calendar, the grapes go into stainless steel to ferment spontaneously. With enough sugar still left, it is filled into the bottle and ages for about 5 months. It is then degorged, the process of taking most of the dead yeast out of it, and ready to be consumed. It’s an absolute joy to taste this as it has aromas of ripe apricots and some herbal notes. This is an excellent welcome drink for any occasion and will also be brilliant as a night cap with dessert.
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