A Blanc de Noirs from the Hohen-Sülzen Limestone
The 2014 Pinot Kirchenstück Réserve Brut Nature is a white-pressed sparkling wine made from red grapes, grown in the VDP.Grosse Lage Kirchenstück in Hohen-Sülzen. Not a sparkling wine from the winery's home village, but one from the Wonnegau region, where the limestone lies just beneath the surface.
Pinot Kirchenstück 2014 is the single-vineyard sparkling wine from Sekthaus Raumland, made from 100 percent Pinot Noir and classified in the VDP.Sekt.Prestige category. With a dosage of 2 grams per liter, it belongs to the Brut Nature category, meaning those sparkling wines to which almost nothing is added at the end. What you taste comes from the vineyard and from time.
Wild berries, Morello cherry, and white pepper
The Brut Nature is fragrant with red-fruit notes of wild berries and Morello cherries, accompanied by a fine hint of white pepper in the background.
96 months on the lees have added layers of brioche, nut butter, and toasted almonds without overpowering the red fruit. 8.3 grams of acidity per liter provide a tension that is not cushioned at any point by a significant dosage. Powerful, chalky, and uncompromisingly dry, it remains so through to the finish, where the minerality of the site asserts itself once again.
At Volker Raumland, "Réserve" means at least 90 months of lees aging, and the Raumland Kirchenstück has exceeded this threshold by another half-year. This is precisely what accounts for the fine creaminess that makes such a dry sparkling wine accessible in the first place.
With crustaceans and dark meat
Its power and lack of sweetness make it a sparkling wine for the main course rather than a quick reception at the door.
Mediterranean fish from the oven pairs well with it, as do crustaceans with butter and dark grilled meat. Where a Brut with five grams of dosage might become soft, this one stands firm and holds its own against the saltiness of the food.
Between 8 and 10 degrees, it reveals everything in a white wine glass; in a narrow flute, hardly half of that. It is an aperitif only for guests who truly enjoy dry sparkling wine, as there is no soft landing here.
A Grosse Lage in the Wonnegau
The Kirchenstück in Hohen-Sülzen is classified as a VDP.Grosse Lage and is situated on pure limestone covered by a thin layer of loess.
The Pinot Noir grows there on vines nearly 30 years old, whose roots reach into the limestone, drawing the salty character into the berries. The base wines were aged in barriques, followed by malolactic fermentation and the second fermentation in the bottle, a method Volker Raumland has applied to every one of his sparkling wines since 1984.
The tirage bottling took place in June 2015, and it was disgorged in January 2023, riddled and uncorked by hand like every single bottle at the estate. At the Meininger German Sparkling Wine Award 2020, it scored 93 points. One site, one variety, almost no dosage.
Since 2020, Raumland has been the first sparkling wine-exclusive estate to join the VDP, and single-vineyard sparkling wines like this one paved the way. You can find the estate's range in our shop, as well as other sparkling wines with long lees aging.