Griesel Sekt – Pinot Prestige Brut Nature 2018

The Griesel Sekt Pinot Prestige Brut Nature 2018 is a limited vintage sparkling wine made from Pinot Noir grapes without the addition of a dosage. There are a total of 4,091 bottles of it. The Pinot Prestige is a Blanc de Noir sparkling wine, i.e., a white sparkling wine pressed from red grape varieties, and it smells of ripe red apple and pear chutney, with rosemary and juniper joining in, and notes of warm pretzel bread with smoked bacon rounding off the impressions. On the palate, a powerful perlage, mouth-filling, spicy, long-lasting. The Griesel Pinot Prestige Brut Nature is multi-layered, complex, with good draw, very juicy, until at the end the vibrating tension and refreshing quality remain.

Sekthaus Griesel – how the Pinot Prestige is created

The grapes for this Griesel Blanc de Noir sparkling wine grow on soils of the Hessische Bergstraße, which are characterized by a high granite content, so that the vines have to dig deep into the earth. This and the cool winds from the nearby Odenwald ensure a good acid structure and minerality in the base wines.

The Pinot Noir grapes were harvested by hand in September 2018 and then pressed very gently. As in Champagne, Niko Brandner knows the importance of gentle pressing, because the less tannins and wax from the berry skin get into the must, the finer and more long-lasting the perlage in the sparkling wine can become later. Only about 50% of the juice present in the berries is pressed.

In the cellar, Niko Brandner gives things time, so 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, which gives the wine a special mouthfeel and creaminess. Cellar master Brandner combines large and small stainless steel (40%) and wooden (25% barrique + 35% tonneau) barrels for aging, which gives the sparkling wine more complexity.

One year later, in July 2019, the Pinot Noir is bottled without filtration and fining and given the tirage to initiate the second fermentation in the bottle. It is then allowed to rest and mature for another 34 months on the fine lees in the cellar built in 1904, where it is regularly riddled and the bottles are increasingly turned upside down, until at the end of disgorging (May/2022) the yeast plug is removed from the bottle and the Griesel Sekt Pinot Prestige Brut Nature goes on sale without the addition of a dosage and without the addition of sulfur. Acidity 7.2g/l

Sparkling wine with time and enjoyment

A Griesel Sekt of the Prestige classification is produced using traditional bottle fermentation. After bottling the base wine, it matures for at least 34 months on the lees and undergoes the 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 sparkling wine Griesel Sekt Prestige.