Pinot Gris Osthofen – 2025

Grauburgunder Osthofen in oak barrels, taut and powerful

The 2025 Grauburgunder Osthofen from the Karl May winery is a dry, organic "Ortswein" (village wine) from Rheinhessen, spontaneously fermented in oak barrels. Powerful and creamy, yet tauter than previous vintages. Not a soft "Schoppen" (everyday wine), but a white wine with stature.

Grauburgunder Osthofen 2025 is a dry organic village wine from the Karl May winery in the Wonnegau region of Rheinhessen, grown in the estate's oldest Pinot Gris vineyards. 6.4 grams of acidity make it the tautest of the recent vintages, while 13.5 percent alcohol gives it stature. A wine that doesn’t play second fiddle at the dinner table, but rather carries the meal.

What 6.4 grams of acidity do for the texture

The Grauburgunder Osthofen smells of ripe pear and quince, roasted hazelnut, and a hint of brioche from the oak barrel.

On the palate, you first experience the melt characteristic of the variety, creamy and broad. Then the acidity takes hold. At 6.4 grams, it draws a line through the richness, whereas the softer 2023 vintage with 4.9 grams gave way. The 1.3 grams of residual sugar are negligible in comparison; the wine remains uncompromisingly dry and finishes with a salty note.

Spicy, nutty, salty – that is how the 2025 carries through the entire sip. After a few minutes of breathing in the glass, you will find the limestone behind the fruit that gives this site its drive.

A white wine that replaces red wine

Served at 10 to 12 degrees Celsius in a large glass, the Grauburgunder Osthofen effortlessly replaces a light red wine at the table. It has enough body and, in this vintage, enough acidity to do so.

Quickly seared pork with mushrooms in a cream sauce pairs well with it, as do cod with a nut crust, roasted pumpkin, and aged mountain cheese. The acidity of this vintage also handles lemon and capers, where a softer Grauburgunder would fail. Served too cold, the melt is masked, so it is better to take it out of the fridge and wait ten minutes.

If you prefer something rounder and more embracing, you will find it in the Grauburgunder Osthofen 2023, the mildest in the range. Other German white wines can be found on the shelf next to it.

Spontaneously fermented, six months on the lees

The grapes come from the winery's oldest Grauburgunder vineyards in the best sites of Osthofen, on deep loess soil with limestone marl.

Vines up to 40 years old root deep enough here to reach water even in dry summers. The Wonnegau is one of the warmest corners of Rheinhessen, which gives the variety ripe fruit and body, while the limestone in the subsoil preserves the acidity. Both together result in this drive combined with fullness.

In the cellar, the must is spontaneously fermented in wooden barrels, without added yeast, and then rests on the fine lees for six months. The wood provides power and creaminess, the yeast provides the texture, and both together require half a year to achieve this. A village wine is thus not created in a single season, but over decades in the vineyard.

"Our wines are becoming better through the ecological cultivation of the vineyards," say Peter and Fritz May about their path since 2007. The family has been running the winery in its seventh generation since 1815, on around 35 hectares between Bechtheim, Westhofen, and Osthofen. More can be found in the Karl May winery assortment. A Grauburgunder that has had patience and passes it on.

Grauburgunder Osthofen – a wine and its values

• Origin: Wine from Germany
• Region: Rheinhessen
• Village wine: Osthofen
• Winery: Karl May - Peter and Fritz
• Grape variety: Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris)
• Vintage: 2025
• German Quality Wine
• 13.5% vol. alcohol
• 6.4 g/l acidity
• 1.3 g/l residual sugar

Organic inspection body DE-ÖKO-039 – German Agriculture