Griesel Rosé Sekt Brut 2022 – Sparkling Tradition

The Griesel Rosé Sekt Tradition Brut 2022 is a classic sparkling wine made from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The Rosé Brut offers aromas of red fruits such as small Mieze Schindler strawberries, sweet and sour rhubarb, and red currants, complemented by delicate orange blossoms and herbal notes, with soft flatbread rounding out the impressions. On the palate, it displays a powerful effervescence, mouth-filling, mineral, with good grip, pink pearls with no sweetness whatsoever, puristic yet with plenty of juiciness.

Sekthaus Griesel – how the Rosé Brut is made

The grapes for this Griesel Rosé Sekt grow on soils in the Hessian Bergstraße region, which are characterized by a high granite content, forcing the vines to dig deep into the earth. This, combined with the cool winds from the nearby Odenwald, ensures a good acid structure and minerality in the base wines.

The Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) and Pinot Meunier (Schwarzriesling) grapes were 100% hand-picked in September 2022 and then pressed very gently. As in Champagne, Niko Brandner understands the importance of gentle pressing, because the less tannins and wax from the berry skins get into the must, the finer and longer-lasting the perlage in the sparkling wine can become. Only about 50% of the juice present in the berries is pressed out. This initially produces a white wine from red grape varieties, a Blanc de Noir.

In the cellar, Niko Brandner gives things time; the grapes are allowed to ferment spontaneously and undergo malolactic fermentation, in which the malic acid in the wine is converted into the milder lactic acid, giving the wine a special mouthfeel and creaminess. Cellar master Brandner combines large and small stainless steel (65%) and wooden (35%) barrels for maturation, which gives the sparkling wine more complexity. The Griesel Rosé is a Rosé Assemblage, meaning that during the blending process, a portion of red wine was added to the white-pressed Blanc de Noir, just enough to create the delicate pink or rather coppery color.

A year later, on July 21, 2023, the Pinot is bottled unfiltered and unfined, and dosed for tirage to initiate the second fermentation in the bottle. The dosage was 4g/l. It is then allowed to rest and mature on the fine lees for another 20 months in the cellar built in 1904, being regularly riddled and the bottles gradually turned upside down until, at the very end, during disgorgement, the yeast plug is removed from the bottle and the Griesel Sekt Rosé Tradition finally goes on sale at the end of March 2025.

Tradition – Time and Enjoyment

A Griesel Sekt of the Tradition classification is produced using traditional bottle fermentation. After bottling the base wine, it matures for at least 20 months on the lees and undergoes a second fermentation, the conversion of wine to sparkling wine. The long yeast contact ensures a fine perlage and notes of brioche, of fine yeast dough, in the Griesel Sekt Tradition.