silvaner Archives - Wine Chords

Cloudy by Nature

Published 4. July 2025 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

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.

Price: Low

Blend from Brand

Published 1. October 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Pedersgata in the main street in what was earlier known as a tired eastern neighbourhood, but is now bustling with energy. Other fabulous restaurants like Bellies (vegan) and Sabi Omakase (Japanese with Michelin star) are also found here. This wonderful wine we tasted at Claes Helbak’s new place Lapin in that street.

One of the wines I tasted at the opening night in March was Wilder Satz 2018, a very clean, pure natural wine from Bockenheim, Pfalz. Weingut Brand is now brothers Daniel and Jonas, 5th generation. When little brother Jonas joined in 2014 the then organic production was taken a step further to natural. In some wines are added a bit sulphur. This one not. Whole clusters of chardonnay, müller-thurgau and silvaner were pressed before spontaneous fermentation. Bottled unfiltered.

Wilder Satz 2018 (Weing. Brand)

Light straw, slightly turbid. Aromatic, yellow apples, lime and orange peel, and yeast. Energetic, with lovely acidity and low alcohol; long.

Price: Medium

Pét nat at P Franco

Published 25. October 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Finally I managed to visit P Franco in the Clapton area of East London. It’s small, I don’t know if the workers find it functional. But there is one big table in the middle of the room, so I found it cosy and social. How nice isn’t it to be surrounded by so many good bottles; used bottles from the bar, and bottles from the shop waiting to get a new owner.

The owners also have other venues in town, like the Bright and the Peg. There is always something interesting going on, and many are the guest chefs that have been visiting.

Daniel and the rest of the staff being very attentive

This night I had been in Hackney, and just popped in. No problem to find a place by their one central table.

I had three wines, and I let Daniel and the others decide. For every wine I got the choice between two or three, so it turned into an interesting tasting also.

I tasted, among other wines, a very good natural verdicchio, Terre Silvale 2018 from La Distesa di Corrado Dottori from the Marche, an unfiltered Grüner 2018 from Arndorfer, and A toi nous 2018, from Andrea Calek, a Czech in the Ardeche.

For this post I chose the Silvaner pét nat from 2 Naturkinder of Franken. They have a small production from 30 years old vines on shell limestone by the river Main in Bavaria. The grapes are hand harvested and left as whole clusters. The bunches ferment in stainless steel for two weeks without temperature control. Then the bunches are pressed, and the wine finishes the fermentation in bottle. It was bottled with close to 10 grams residual sugar and the pressure became 2.2 bars. The alcohol is low at 11%, and as for the total SO2 (nothing added) it’s as little as 4 mg/L.

Silvaner Pét nat 2018 (2 Naturkinder)

Orange/brown, slightly turbid. Aroma of yellow apples, white flowers and herbs. Yeasty, with a creamy mousse, grapefruity, with a nicely integrated acidity.

Price: Medium

Food: I had it with “Smoked ivory cauliflower, cacao flower and horseradish” at P Franco, but it should tackle a lot of dishes; white fish, smoked fish, charcuterie, lightly spiced Asian…

Tag: silvaner

Cloudy by Nature

Blend from Brand

Pét nat at P Franco