Weingut Brand 'The Electric Chardonnay Acid Test' 2022
Weingut Brand 'The Electric Chardonnay Acid Test' 2022
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Where: Pfalz, Germany
Grapes: Chardonnay and Riesling
Body: Light
Category: White Wine
Forget what you think you know about Chardonnay (buttery/oaky). This is a no-nonsense, young-vine Chardonnay that is ripe, yet sizzles with energy and acidity. And just to make sure that the wine glows in the dark, the brothers add a small bit of Riesling to the cuvée which turbo-charges everything, heightening and sharpening the aromatics, making the wine perfumed and even more explosive.
organic + biodynamic // native yeasts
2022 // 750ml // ABV 12%
DETAILS
DETAILS
The forgotten border region of the northern Pfalz is riddled with limestone soils making it perfect for, among other things, certain varieties that do well in Burgundy, like, well, Chardonnay.
Yet here the temperatures are a bit cooler, the nights a bit brisker, and so the Chardonnay that the young brothers Brand farm comes to us with a tad more acidity, a few thousand more volts of electricity than most of the more luxurious examples from Burgundy and the New World.
ABOUT THE WINEMAKER
Weingut Brand was established in 1891 as a mixed agriculture business of grapes and animals. Now comprising 18 hectares it is run by 5th-generation brothers Daniel and Jonas Brand who took over in 2014.
Daniel began working in the cellar in 2012 after completing his studies and apprenticing in other cellars around Germany. Jonas also studied but chose to do his apprenticeship in Austria and France where he learnt the art of Petillant Natural and also gained a deep understanding of organic viticulture. Lise and Bertrand Jousset in Montlouis played an instrumental part in this.
Since 1994 the farming had been managed without the use of herbicides or pesticides, but in 2015 the brothers converted all 18 hectares to full organics, with official certification granted in 2018. Daniel and Jonas also utilize biodynamic treatments, experimenting and learning to discover what practices work best for their vines.
Weingut Brand is in the village of Bockenheim, located in the northern most section of the Pfalz (the second largest winemaking region of Germany). It borders the neighbouring wine region of Rheinhessen and has a cool climate, allowing for slow ripening. The hills provide the opportunity for various microclimates, where the soils are limestone heavy at altitude of 350 meters to clay and loam rich in the valley at 150 meters.
Once received into the cellar, the grapes are always fermented separately for each plot. The brothers choose to do this to better understand the grapes, the year and the site. In the cellar they utilise stainless steel and old wooden barrels of varying sizes. All wines in the Pur range remain on fine lees until bottled.
They produce two ranges: ‘Classic’ and ‘Pur’. The Classic range is wild yeast fermentation, receives light filtration and has sulphur added at bottling. The Pur range are all wild yeast fermentations, unfined, unfiltered and without any additions, including no sulphur. German wine law does not permit unfiltered wines to be labelled regionally, as such, the Pur range are all labelled wines of Germany rather than Pfalz. Helga, Daniel & Jonas’s grandmother, drew the images for the labels.
These are wines with a lot of energy and personality, just like the brothers themselves.