2019 Drei Freunde
2019 Drei Freunde
Less Bacchus this year after huge heat damage, skin fermented Silvaner picks up the slack. Elegant, pure and vibrant.
Cuvée: Drei Freunde
Style: Still
Colour: Skin
Grapes/Blend: Bacchus (28%), Müller-Thurgau (14%), Silvaner (58%)
ABV: 11%
Vintage: 2019
Winemaking: “Bacchus is very open to heat damage, the skins are super thin and the cells are pretty big, so they like bursting when it's too hot. We lost a lot in 2019 through the intense heat of that summer. So the Drei Freunde this year is dominated by skin fermented Silvaner. Bacchus was always very good for tropical, juicy flavours. So perhaps it's lacking some of that easy, joyful fruitiness, and is a little more serious perhaps this year.”
The three wines for the blend were fermented and aged separately but similarly: semi-carbonic maceration for a week (the Bacchus was whole bunch), before Müller Thurgau and Bacchus were pressed off to steel tanks for fermentation and ageing, with the Silvaner destined for big old barrels. Blended and bottled in July 2020.
Sulphur: None added
Soil: Shell limestone, Keuper
Michael and Melanie left their corporate jobs behind and started making wine in Michael’s parents’ winery in 2013. After discovering their taste for natural wine, they converted the 6 hectare vineyard to organic practices. They've developed a repertoire of wild delights which are hand-harvested, indigenous-yeasts vinification without sulphur and unfiltered. As well as their natural range, they also make wines with purchased grapes which are very lightly sulphured and filtered for a slightly different market.