Chardonnay Auxerrois Brut Nature – 2022

Chardonnay Auxerrois 2022 – Organic Sparkling Wine by Andres & Mugler 

With the organic sparkling wine Chardonnay Auxerrois Brut Nature 2022, Andres & Mugler demonstrate a skillful touch, proving their ability to create distinctive cuvées with unmistakable character. This complex Burgundy cuvée offers aromas of white and yellow fruits, such as peach and honeydew melon, complemented by subtle vanilla notes from oak aging and green almond undertones. On the palate, the organic sparkling wine captivates with its cool elegance and delicate mousse. Creamy and profound, it enthralls with its fruit and freshness, richness and power, and is consistently dry. This is how sparkling wine should be! The Andres & Mugler Chardonnay Auxerrois Brut Nature Organic Sparkling Wine is produced using the traditional method of bottle fermentation.   

Chardonnay Auxerrois – Inner Qualities

• 12.0 % vol Alcohol
• 6.3 g/l Acidity
• 6.4 g/l Residual Sugar

Organic Sparkling Wine – How the Chardonnay Auxerrois Brut Nature is Made

The Burgundy grapes for this Andres Mugler organic sparkling wine grow on mineral-rich soils in the Palatinate, specifically in Ruppertsberg, Deidesheim, and Maikammer. The cool winds from the nearby Palatinate Forest ensure a good acid structure in the early-harvested base wines, which is essential for quality sparkling wine. 

The quality philosophy of the Andres Mugler sparkling wine manufactory begins with meticulous soil cultivation and consistent greening. The vineyard work of Michael Andres and Steffen Mugler is pure craftsmanship, deeply rooted in a love for biodynamics. The rhythm of nature significantly dictates their actions. For both, healthy soil, an intact flora and fauna, and thus a strong vine, are prerequisites for a healthy circular economy. Therefore, they hand-harvest all biodynamically farmed vineyards to bring the undamaged grapes to the sparkling wine estate in Ruppertsheim.

Here, Chardonnay and Auxerrois are gently pressed, because the gentler the pressing, the fewer tannins and wax from the berry skin enter the must, and the finer and more persistent the perlage in the sparkling wine will be later. Only about two-thirds of the juice present in the berries is pressed off.

In the cellar, Steffen Mugler and Michael Andres give their sparkling wines time. The grapes are allowed to ferment slowly and undergo malolactic fermentation, during which the malic acid in the wine is converted into the milder lactic acid, giving the base wine a special mouthfeel and creaminess. Approximately 20 percent of the Chardonnay is aged in barrique, which adds even more complexity to the cuvée.

The following year, the Chardonnay Auxerrois is bottled and tirage is added to initiate the second fermentation in the bottle. It then rests and matures on its fine lees for another year, being regularly riddeld and the bottles gradually inverted, until the final disgorgement process manually removes the yeast plug from the bottle. The Andres Mugler Organic Sparkling Wine Chardonnay Auxerrois Brut Nature then rests in the bottle without any dosage until, as Steffen emphasizes, "it's good when it comes out."

Andres & Mugler – The Sparkling Wine Makers

The sparkling wine manufactory Andres & Mugler in Ruppertsberg was founded in 1989 by two friends and Palatinate winemakers, Michael Andres and Steffen Mugler. In the early years, base wines were purchased and made into sparkling wine, but since 1993, only grapes from their own cultivation have been used for sparkling wine production. On a total of 17 hectares (7 hectares for Michael and 10 hectares for Steffen), the sparkling wine estate practices biodynamic viticulture, cultivating Riesling and white Burgundy varieties such as Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, and Chardonnay, as well as Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, in the best vineyards of the Palatinate. From these grapes, German sparkling wine with an unmistakable, elegant style is produced using traditional bottle fermentation. Sparkling wine from Germany of the highest quality and organic standards. In 2019, two of their sparkling wines were rated "very good" for the first time at the Meininger Deutscher Sektpreis, followed in 2021 by the award from Eichelmann Deutschlands Weine as the best sparkling wine collection of 2021. All respect. The sparkling wine estate Andres & Mugler is a member of "die Sektmacher" (The Sparkling Wine Makers), an association of traditional sparkling wine producers.

Organic Control Body DE-ÖKO-039 – German Agriculture