Producer Wasenhaus

GERMANY, MOSEL

When in the courses they talk about Germany, apart from Moselle and Riesling, we hear about vines with cacophonic names and regions that can be located wherever the imagination does not foresee a bottom-fermented beer: nothingness. Alex Götze and Christoph Wolberg were roommates in Beaune, the former originally from Dresden and the latter from the Baden region north of Freiburg on the Alzatian border. They were both in Beaune because for them wine, pinot noir and Burgundy had become not only a destination to reach, but to experience! For several years they have worked for companies such as: Pierre Morey, Comte Armand, Bernard van Berg, Leflaive, De Montille. One day Christoph talks to Alex that in his land, Baden, there was an important potential for Spatburgunder, Pinot Noir, especially in those old vines that no one wanted to cultivate, and that the large cooperatives in his region were not interested in. low yield in those vineyards. So after several rounds of patrols and tastings in Baden Alex and Christoph decide to give it a try, it was 2016. Baden is a very extensive region that rises from Freiburg to the north for about 200 km but it is precisely in the southern part on the border with the black forest that we find a very particular microclimate. The autumn-winter season is rather rainy but the summer spring can register among the highest temperatures in all of Germany (consider that we are in areas that are still on average cold given the latitude). The soils present are extremely complex: we find on the surface a sandy mineral soil called löess of glacial origin but in depth the matrix of the mother rock is distinguished between granitic areas, originating in the black forest, calcareous marl of marine origin and finally volcanic at the foot of the old Kaiserstuhl volcano. Staufen im Breisgau is located north of Freiburg and equidistant about 15 km from these different soils and microclimates, from the wettest of the black forest on granite soils to the driest on volcanic soils. The vine par excellence is Spatburgunder, which is a centuries-old adaptation of Pinot Noir in the area, there are different biotypes but there are few qualitative veterans, explanted and replaced by the highly productive biotypes that the regional cooperatives have pushed from the 1970s onwards. Other varieties are then grown: first of all Gutedel (= Chasselas), Muller Thurgau, Weissburgunder (= Pinot Blanc) and Chardonnay. According to Alex, the climatic warming of recent years has been a positive factor in being able to reach interesting maturations that were previously impossible to obtain, a bit like in the Moselle. Wasenhaus's approach is of organic farming with biodynamic practices: in the cellar everything is seen in subtraction, the less we do the better, but with decades of experience behind it at great Burgundy producers, it is a supervised winemaking on a razor's edge. search for an expressive refinement that has made this reality with only three commercial vintages on its shoulders as one of the world artisan companies to look at. Quantities are exceptionally limited, but drinking is at unexpected levels - a real find.