Here is a silvaner from Weingut am Stein, located at the foot of the legendary Würzburger Stein vineyard in Franken. This family estate dates back to the 1890s and is now steered by fifth-generation winemakers Ludwig and Sandra Knoll, with the next generation already contributing to the legacy. Since 2006 the estate has embraced organic farming, biodynamic since 2008.
The vineyards lie on classic Muschelkalk (shell-limestone). These stony, clay-rich soils lend a vibrant mineral backbone. For the 2023 vintage, grapes were hand-harvested, underwent spontaneous fermentation in stainless-steel tanks, and matured on the lees for eight months before bottling — all aligned with their minimalist, terroir-first ethos.
Würzburg Silvaner 2023(Weingut am Stein)
Pale straw-green. Opens with aromas of citrus peel, ripe orchard fruits (peach and apple), accented by delicate herbs, floral notes, a hint of anise and a subtle nutty nuance. The palate is fresh, juicy and dry, with vibrant acidity, mineral clarity, and a long finish. A wine with finesse.
I’m in the small Norwegian town of Skien. I’m sitting outside at Strøm, which isn’t a typical wine bar, but right now they’re pouring some surprisingly good wines by the glass.
One of them is the Riesling Trocken 2023, from one of the Pfalz region’s most respected producers. Reichsrat von Buhl has been making wine since the 19th century, and their dry Rieslings are known for clarity, energy and precision.
Grapes are grown organically around Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg and fermented with native yeasts. This vintage is bright, dry and stony — a riesling for the table, but also a warm day drink.
Riesling Trocken 2023(Reichsrat von Buhl)
Pale straw with a green hint. Lime zest, green apple and a touch of grapefruit pith on the nose. The palate is fresh and mouthwatering, with concentrated fruit, a racy acidity, a chalky texture and a dry, salty finish.
Katharina Wechsler’s Cloudy by Nature series is the playful, low-intervention side of her portfolio, aimed at wine drinkers who value vibrancy and texture over polish. These are wines made with a hands‑off philosophy: unfiltered, unfined, fermented with native yeasts and bottled with minimal sulphur. The range embraces the slightly wild, the faintly cloudy and the joyfully drinkable.
The grapes come from old vines in Westhofen, with organic certification since 2021 and biodynamic practices already in place. Fermentations happen in stainless steel or neutral vessels, the wines are bottled cloudy and left to express themselves with minimal interference.
Among these expressive bottles in the Cloudy by Nature range is the Pet Nat 2022, a sparkling silvaner that captures the raw vitality of the method ancestrale. It is made from 100 % silvaner grown on old vines in Westhofen, and after around three weeks of skin contact, it is bottled while fermentation is still underway. No filtration, no dosage, just juice, native yeast and time. The result is a gently fizzy wine with a slight haze and plenty of attitude.
Cloudy by Nature Pet Nat 2022(K. Wechsler)
Hazy, pale straw yellow with a faint golden tint. Bright aromas of green apple, dried herbs and a touch of cider-like savouriness. On the palate it’s lively and bone-dry, with a fine but slightly rustic mousse, citrus zest, orchard fruit and a light phenolic grip from the skin contact. The lees bring gentle weight and breadth, but the wine feels agile and fresh.
This wine from the Nahe was a best buy in the tasting of riesling GG in my local wine club.
Weingut Kruger-Rumpf is a family estate that marries generations of tradition with a contemporary focus. Georg Rumpf, now at the helm, continues the family legacy with a deep respect for organic principles. The estate is particularly known for its holdings in some of the Nahe’s finest vineyards, including the revered Münsterer Im Pitterberg.
The Pitterberg vineyard is a steep, south-facing site composed of Devonian slate and thin topsoil. The vines, many of them 50–70 years old, are tightly planted and deeply rooted, producing low yields of concentrated fruit. Grapes for the Grosses Gewächs bottling are hand-harvested and vinified in large, neutral Stück (2,000-litre oak casks), where they undergo spontaneous fermentation and extended lees ageing. The result is a dry Riesling of structure, texture, and crystalline precision.
Im Pitterberg 2023 (Kruger-Rumpf)
Pale straw colour. Aromas of white peach, lemon zest and crushed stone. On the palate, it is taut and vibrant, driven by racy acidity and a strong mineral core. There is nothing showy, but a wine that reveals its depth with time in the glass. While already compelling, it has the structure and balance to evolve over the next decade or more.
The Kirchspiel Grosses Gewächs 2012 from Wittmann was served in a bring-a-bottle edition of our wine club.
Weingut Wittmann, based in the village of Westhofen in southern Rheinhessen, has been in the same family since the 17th century. Since taking the reins in the early 1990s, Philipp Wittmann has steered the estate towards organic and later biodynamic viticulture, focusing on low yields, spontaneous fermentations, and wines that speak of their origin. Wittmann joined the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter) in 2004, and today the weingut is recognised as one of the leading estate in Germany.
Kirchspiel is one of Westhofen’s grand cru vineyards, and some say its most elegant. Facing southeast, it forms a natural amphitheatre that captures the morning sun while remaining exposed to the cooling influence of the Rhine Valley. The soils are rich in limestone with patches of clay, giving rise to wines of finesse, minerality, and finely etched acidity.
Where neighbouring Morstein tends to produce broader, more powerful wines, Kirchspiel is about focus, energy and detail – often the best balanced wine in warmer vintages.
Kirchspiel GG 2012(Weing. Wittmann)
Still pale with a green-tinged hue. Subtle but layered on the nose: white flowers, lemon zest, yellow plum, beeswax and crushed stone. Taut and linear on the palate, with citrus, orchard fruit, wild herbs and minerals. Textured, chalky. The acidity is bright and persistent, giving the wine a long finish. Still remarkably youthful. Some wines invite celebration; this one invites contemplation.
At a tasting in our wine club yesterday, we explored a line-up of Grosses Gewächs Rieslings from the newly released 2023 vintage. Among the highlights was Katharina Wechsler’s Morstein.
The 2023 vintage in Germany, and particularly in Rheinhessen, offered conditions that many growers described as “classic.” Early impressions suggest, in short, that this is a year of finesse rather than power.
Morstein is one of Rheinhessen’s great limestone vineyards, perched above the village of Westhofen. First mentioned in the 13th century, it is now firmly established as a Grosses Gewächs (GG) site, producing Rieslings of impressive longevity and mineral tension. The combination of deep clay and active limestone gives the wines both weight and energy.
Since taking over her family estate in 2009, Katharina Wechsler has become a leading figure in the new wave of German winegrowers. Her style is defined by organic farming, spontaneous fermentation and long lees ageing in large neutral oak, resulting in wines that are textural, articulate, and deeply rooted in place.
The grapes for this wine were hand-harvested in several passes to capture optimal ripeness. After gentle foot-trodding of the grapes, the must was fermented with wild yeasts in large oak casks and matured on its fine lees for several months. The approach is low-intervention but carefully guided, allowing the site’s signature to shine through.
Morstein 2023(K. Wechsler)
Pale colour. Aromatic with lime, white peach, green herbs and wet stone. Expressive on the palate, with a saline drive and laser-cut acidity. Fine texture from lees ageing, and a long, stony finish that speaks of its limestone origin. Still youthful, probably with an excellent ageing potential, but already compelling in its linear, elegant style.
Back in London and a busy Borough Market at lunchtime. Elliott’s was opened in 2011 by Brett Redman, from Australia, with the aim of serving only produce sold at the market. It has long been one of my favourites, and you can read a couple of posts here and here.
Andi Mann is based in Eckelsheim, Rheinhessen. He makes lively, energetic wines, organic with some biodynamic methods. The soil is limestone (to which the name Calx alludes), and the age of the vines is around 40 years.
This wine is based on grauburgunder, whose official name is pinot gris. Many of you will know that this variety is not completely “white”. It has red spots, so as a skin-contact wine it will take on a red or reddish colour, depending on the length of contact. (Read about another wine of that kind here.)
Half of the grapes were directly pressed, the other half had fermentation on skins for 2 weeks. The juice was then fermented and stored in large German oak barrels for 1 year. It was bottled without filtration or addition of sulphur.
Calx Grauburgunder 2022(Andi Mann)
Beautiful blushing colour. Aroma of citrus peel, flowers and ripe peach. Delicate tannins, quite full and juicy, with a fresh acidity. Dangerously quaffable.
Price: Medium
Food: We had it with lightly spiced chicken and beef carpaggio, but it should go with a variety of fish and light meat.
WeingutGeorg Mosbacher is a family-run vineyard comprising 20 hectares of vineyards. The vineyards are located around the picturesque village of Forst in Pfalz. The farm is run today by the third generation Sabine Mosbacher-Düringer and her husband Jürgen Düringer.
The vineyards are protected by the high Haardt mountains, which lie in a semicircle around Forst. The grapes are hand-picked. The wine undergoes a cold maceration for 4-5 days before the must is spontaneously fermented in large oak barrels over 3 weeks. Aged for 12 months in used barriques and tonneau.
Spätburgunder 2021 (Georg Mosbacher)
Cherry red. Aroma of raspberry, cherry with hints of price and licorice. Silky palate with good fruit, adequate acidity and sweetish hint in the finish. It had a sense of CO2 that disappeared with airing.
Our local wine club featured Sekt, sparkling wines from Germany, the other day. The tasting showed an overall good quality-price ratio, I would say better than the tasting of spätburgunders a couple of months ago. There are four categories of German sparklers, from the basic Sekt, where the grapes can be of shopped around Europe, narrowing down to Winzersekt, where a smaller manufacturer owns the grapes himself.
Among the best, and also with a very good price, was this one. Raumland is a specialist located in Rheinhessen, with facilities for making sparkling wines offered to several famous German producers. All their vineyards are worked organically, and their sekts are normally fermented out dry.
Riesling Brut 2018(Sekthaus Raumland)
Light yellow colour, fine bubbles (small mousse). Aromatic, green apples and lime, hint of bakery (after 36 months on the lees). Mellow entry, with apricot, a citrussy acidity grows in the mouth, it’s complex, it’s crisp and energetic, and it finishes off dry.
When the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 wine from Reichtsrat von Buhl was offered for the celebration. This cuvée is named to honour the occasion, 150 years later. Organically grown riesling grapes were harvested manually. The base wine was fermented in stainless steel and in tonneaux, followed by a traditional bottle fermentation on the lees for 40 months.
Suez Riesling Brut Nature 2015(Reichtsrat von Buhl)
Light yellow, small mousse. Yellow fruit, mature apples, brioche notes. Full in the mouth, creamy texture, integrated acidity and a long finish. Mature style, elegant.
Sven Leiner’s domaine is located in Southern Pfalz. It consists of 15 hectares of vineyards, that he runs organically with biodynamic methods (and certification). Only a little sulfur is added to the wines before bottling, and no filtration is done. Some key words: Spätburgunder with chardonnay, age of wines 60-70 years, grapes harvested manually, fermented and matured in big oak vats and cement. I guess it’s assembled from three vintages corresponding with the numbers on the label.
Leiner Brut Nature(Weingut Leiner)
This wine lived up to the natural wines’ reputation of being living things, as it changed “colours” several times, from closed and square to open and well-assembled. In the beginning it showed a slight mousiness, but the day after (you see, this bottle I smuggled home after the tasting) it was clean and cutting.
Let’s try to assemble the many impressions: Light with very little bubbles. Aroma of ripe apples, some nuttiness and a stony minerality. Full in the mouth, a rich texture, and a fine mousse on the palate, integrated acidity, quite concentrated and long.
Raw Wine is ever expanding and has finally come to Scandinavia. Last Sunday some 180 artisans from all over the world was gathered in the conference center The Plant in Amager Øst, Copenhagen. There were three seminars, of which I participated in one (about wines from Castilla y León, read a note here). In the days leading up to the festival there were also tastings and other events collected under #rawwineweek, of which I also participated in the biggest of the additional tastings (see a report from Café Josephine here).
With 180 producers it’s obvious that I couldn’t taste everything. This time I rambled around with no special plan, except I wanted to talk to some that I didn’t know before, some that I knew a little, and of course say hello to some good friends.
My readers might not know that I have a history in Peru. But I have, and my daughter is half Peruvian. Some years ago I visited the region of Ica. It was exciting to know that there is now a natural wine producer right in the desert. The people of Peru knows that it’s their country, not neighbouring Chile, that is the cradle of pisco. The old harbour of Pisco is located right there, only 75 kilometers from Ica, and both are located south of Lima.
Pepe Moquillaza is also a pisco maker and has done a great job recuperating quebranta grapes for pisco production. Now he is rescuing Peruvian clay vessels (also called piscos, or botijas) for natural wine making. In Copenhagen I tasted two of his maritime desert wines. The first one was Mimo Italia Quebranta 2020 (italia, local name for moscatel de alejandría, and quebranta in equal proportions), organically and biodynamically farmed, with two years of skin-contact, not sulphured, aged in old oak, unfined and unfiltered. It’s a light amber coloured wine with good volume, a grapey character and also good acidity. Albita de Ihuanco 2019 is a blend of albilla (local name for palomino) and italia. It combines the minerality of albilla with the flowery scent of moscatel. It’s yellow in colour, and has good volume in the mouth, with some tannin and a lot of fruit. Like the previous wine it has almost zero sugar and a moderate 12% alcohol. The length of the skin-contact is here two months.
Lanfranco Fossà was there on behalf of Davide Spillare, who lends his name to the labels. I met them both when I visited the important village of Gambellara in Veneto five years ago, and it was nice to catch up. (Here you can read about that visit, with more background.) The wines are fresh and lively, and quite light in body. As if some extra freshness is needed, the L1 Frizzante 2021 sparkler has a small percentage of durella to give an extra boost. Bianco Rugoli 2016 comes from an 85 year old vineyard with volcanic soil, with bushes trained in pergola. The nose is complex with mature apples, wax and aromatic herbs, good acidity and a salty mineral finish.
Bianka Schmitt and her VooDoo Doll
A relatively new discovery is Bianka und Daniel Schmitt of Rheinhessen. During the last couple of years I have tasted several impressive wines, from the entry-level 1 litre bottles of Frei. Körper. Kultur. and upwards. It was then lovely to be able to meet Bianka in Copenhagen. These wines are fresh, tasty and truly inspiring. Here we tasted rieslings, like the flowery, red appley, quince and honey scented Riesling M 2018 and the flor-aged Voodoo Doll 2020. There’s no evil behind the appropriate black label; it is floral on the nose, with almonds, herbs and a touch of tropical fruit. Of the reds I will mention two; first the elegant Spätburgunder2018, with its generous raspberry, complemented with flowers, green peppers and an interesting hint of coffee. Kékfrankos is the Hungarian name for blaufränkisch, that the Schmitt family brought over from there. Now in its 2021 vintage it’s medium-bodied and in a way light, but it’s also wonderfully complex, smells of blueberry, morello, herbs and a touch of coffee, it’s luscious in the mouth with soft tannins, an agreeable acidity and a pleasant bitterness in the finish.
Philippe Lancelot is a natural wine classic within Champagne. The estate was created by his parents who both inherited some vineyards, then bought new ones together. Philippe had introduced biodynamic practise for all vineyards by 2012. He wants to express the individuality of each cru and village, almost always completely dry and in most cases without any added sulphur. He showed five magnificent wines, among them Le Fond du Bâteau 2018, from the lieu-dit (named vineyard) of the same name in the surroundings of Choully, a grand cru village in Côte des Blancs. 100% chardonnay, no dosageand zero added sulphites. Light golden, aroma of green apples, citrus, chalk and brioche, concentrated, mineral, long, pure. The oldest wine he presented was Les Bas des Saran 2014, also pure chardonnay, with no additions. This one comes from four lieux-dits in the grand cru villages, among them Cramant (his home village). It’s vinified in oak barrels and vats, and spent 5 years in the cellars before launch. It has a discreet floral nose, more expressive citrus, brioche, in the mouth it has a dry and tense attack but develops both creamy and fruity.
Château Meylet is another natural wine venture from a classic place. They are also biodynamic since 1987. David Favard runs the family estate, that due to its location in St. Emilion has a high percentage of merlot plants, but also cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, malbec and petit verdot. Cuvée Baiser d’Ange 2021 is an interesting orange wine from semillon, made with 15 days skin-contact in amphora. Yellow colour, rich with a sweetish sensation. Château Meylet 2019 showed that the reds have some oakiness at an early stage. Luckily there are aged wines then. The 2003, made by David’s father, has stood the test of time. Red with brick rim; red and dark fruits, some tobacco and spice; fine tannins and well-balanced, a raisiny touch also.
Mas de la Lune is located in the Agly valley, Côtes du Roussillon. In schist and granite soils grow varieties also known from the Spanish side, all of them 70-90 years old. Vanessa Courtay showed me a handful of wines in several colours. I am not sure which vintage I tasted of Le Second Souffle; I think it might be 2022, although it then would barely have the time to stay the 9 months with skin-contact that Vanessa told me it had. Anyway it had also little colour for that amount of time. It’s made of macabeu and tastes of wax, flowers and yellow apples, with a structure that more than the colour tells about the prolonged time on skins.
I will soon go on a trip to Bobal country in mid-south-east Spain. A perfect introduction was then to visit the table of Altolandon, from the Cuenca part of DO Manchuela. The property lies up to 1.100 meters, that makes a slow maturation and a fresh acidity possible. Carmen Sebastián and winemaker Rosalía Molina showed me several wines as proof of this. Milhistorias Bobal 2020 has a bright red-blueish colour; red and black fruits on the nose with flowers and herbs; it’s fresh and fruity, very much alive and with a super acidity.
When I was about to call it a day and leave I stumbled upon Nacho León of Demencia Wine. He is located in Villafranca del Bierzo, and the name points to mencía, the most important grape in the area. The wines come in an expressive style, with good fruit and firm tannins. Fuente de San Lázaro 2019 comes from 115 year old vines in a variety of soils and is made in old wood. It shows red and black fruits, herbs and am earthy touch; in the mouth it has the firm tannins, and also a lot of freshness. Villegas 2019 comes from sandy and clayey soils and is also made in old wood. Ripe red and black fruits, herbs, a toasted note; the tannins are firm and there is some coffee and a touch bitterness in the end.
A highlight was indeed the veggie pita served by Jakobsen’s Pita. Not least because I met Ismael Gozalo, that gave me a sip of his magnificent Frágil 2021, a glass-raised verdejo, just in time to enjoy it with the pita. And of course, interviewing Isabelle Légeron MW for Vinforum magazine, in a story about the Raw Fair itself. When it’s published I may port a short version of it here.
