Pinot Blanc Prestige Brut Nature – 2018

Pinot Blanc Prestige Brut Nature from Griesel Sekt with bottle aging

The 2018 Pinot Blanc Prestige Brut Nature from Griesel Sekt is a vintage sparkling wine made from Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, bottled with zero dosage and aged on the lees since May 2022. There are 2,988 bottles of this vintage, and there will be no more.

Pinot Blanc Prestige Brut Nature 2018 is the Pinot Blanc sparkling wine from Griesel Sekt in Bensheim, Hessische Bergstraße, harvested in September 2018 and disgorged only in May 2022. The idea for this bottling came from cellar master Rachele Crosara, who is known around the winery simply as "Rocket."

Soft on entry with a long finish

Pinot Blanc provides calmness where Chardonnay provides tension, and it is exactly this blend that you will find in your glass.

The aroma leans towards ripe pear and applesauce, followed by almond kernel and almond blossom, while long years on the lees have added a brioche note. On the palate, the fine perlage cushions first, then a clear acidity takes over and carries the flavors far until a chalky minerality marks the end.

It pairs perfectly with veal and light poultry, as well as asparagus with brown butter or a quiche. This sparkling wine handles creamy dishes better than most of its kind because it never runs out of acidity. It also holds its own against a mild mountain cheese or a mushroom pan, and remains drinkable even after the meal instead of becoming heavy.

Why Pinot Blanc doesn't stand alone in the glass

The name mentions Pinot Blanc, but Chardonnay stands beside it in the sparkling wine. Both grow on the Bergstraße on weathered granite, where the soils retain little water and the grapes retain their acidity—the foundation for a sparkling wine intended to last for years. Harvested by hand in September 2018, the grapes were pressed so gently that only about half the juice ran from the berries.

There is a reason for the blend: Pinot Blanc on its own would be round and friendly but lack edge, while Chardonnay brings the structure and acid drive. Together, this results in a sparkling wine that requires zero dosage.

Brut Nature means that no sugar is added after disgorgement, and Griesel Sekt has also opted against the addition of sulfur here. The acidity is 7.2 grams per liter, carrying the sparkling wine through any creamy dish. What is in the bottle is exactly what the cellar released.

Bottle-aged since May 2022

Three-quarters of the base wines were previously kept in steel, one-quarter in barrique. On August 10, 2019, the wine was bottled—neither filtered nor fined—together with the liqueur de tirage, which initiates the second fermentation.

This was followed by thirty-four months on the fine lees, during which it was regularly riddled and turned upside down piece by piece. At Griesel Sekt, "Prestige" is the top classification, and it requires significantly longer aging on the lees than the Tradition line.

It was disgorged in May 2022, and since then, the sparkling wine has continued to mature, now without lees. These years after disgorgement are the reason why the 2018 tastes rounder today than a young Brut Nature, which can still have sharp edges.

If you would like to see what another vintage offers, you can find the 2020 Pinot Blanc Prestige alongside it, and the Chardonnay Prestige shows the same style without the Pinot Blanc. Further bottle-fermented wines can be found under sparkling wines.