Cuvée Louis Brut Nature – 2021

Cuvée Louis Brut Nature 2021 – Organic Sparkling Wine from Andres & Mugler

With their organic sparkling wine Cuvée Louis Brut Nature 2021, Andres & Mugler prove their expertise, demonstrating that they can create magnificent, distinctive cuvées with an unmistakable character and a long-lasting, fine perlage. This complex, white-pressed Burgundy cuvée made from Petit Meunier, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Auxerrois is truly great German sparkling wine. It offers aromas of yellow and red fruits, orange peel, and notes of vanilla from oak aging, while lightly smoked hazelnuts round off the aromatic profile. On the palate, the Cuvée Louis is powerful and voluminous, lively and complex. With its combination of four Burgundy varieties—a rarity in Germany—this consistently dry Andres & Mugler sparkling wine offers sparkling enjoyment at the highest level. The Andres & Mugler Cuvée Louis Brut Nature organic sparkling wine is produced using the traditional bottle fermentation method.

Cuvée Louis Brut Nature – inner values

• 12.0% vol alcohol
• 8.0 g/l acidity
• 2.2 g/l residual sugar

Organic sparkling wine – how the Cuvée Louis Brut Nature is made

The Burgundy grapes for this Andres & Mugler organic sparkling wine grow on mineral soils in the Palatinate region, in Ruppertsberg, Deidesheim, and Maikammer. 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 cellar begins with careful soil cultivation and consistent cover cropping. The vineyard work performed by Michael Andres and Steffen Mugler is pure craftsmanship, characterized by a deep love for biodynamics. The rhythm of nature plays a major role in guiding their actions. For both of them, healthy soil, intact flora and fauna, and consequently a vigorous vine are the prerequisites for a healthy circular economy. They harvest all biodynamically cultivated vineyard sites by hand to ensure the grapes reach the winery in Ruppertsberg undamaged.

Here, Petit Meunier, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Auxerrois are then gently pressed; the gentler the pressing, the fewer tannins and waxes from the berry skins enter the must, resulting in a finer and longer-lasting perlage in the finished sparkling wine. Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir are also pressed gently to avoid releasing the red pigments from the skins, allowing white must to run off. Only about two-thirds of the juice present in the berries is pressed.

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 sparkling base wine a special mouthfeel and creaminess. The Chardonnay portion is matured in barriques, which adds even more complexity to the cuvée. Compared to the Cuvée Elena, the Cuvée Louis is the more red-wine-influenced cuvée.

The following year, the Cuvée Louis is bottled and the "tirage" is added to trigger the second fermentation in the bottle. It is then left to rest and mature on the fine lees for another year, regularly riddled and tilted until finally, upon disgorging by hand, the yeast plug is removed. The Andres & Mugler Cuvée Louis Brut Nature organic sparkling wine then rests in the bottle without the addition of dosage until, as Steffen emphasizes, "it is ready when it comes out."

Andres & Mugler – the sparkling wine makers

The Andres & Mugler sparkling wine cellar in Ruppertsberg was founded in 1989 by friends and Palatinate winemakers Michael Andres and Steffen Mugler. In the first few years, base wines were purchased and turned into sparkling wine, but since 1993, only grapes from their own vineyards have been processed. Across a total of 17 hectares (7 hectares for Michael and 10 for Steffen), the winery practices biodynamic viticulture, growing Riesling and white Burgundy varieties such as Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, and Chardonnay, as well as Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir in the best vineyard sites of the Palatinate. These grapes are used to create German sparkling wine with an unmistakable, elegant style using the traditional bottle fermentation method. Sparkling wine from Germany at the highest level and in organic quality. In 2019, two of their sparkling wines were rated as "very good" at the Meininger German Sparkling Wine Awards, followed in 2021 by the distinction from Eichelmann's "Germany's Wines" as the best sparkling wine collection of 2021. Truly impressive. The Andres & Mugler sparkling wine cellar is a member of "die Sektmacher," the association of traditional sparkling wine producers.

Organic inspection body DE-ÖKO-039 – German Agriculture