Ancestral – Apple with Hops

Ancestral Apple with Hops from von Wiesen: floral and bone-dry

Ancestral Apple with Hops by the von Wiesen manufactory is a sparkling fruit wine made from locally harvested apple must, to which Citra hops have been added. It contains 6.8 percent alcohol and 7.7 grams of acidity per liter, and its effervescence comes from a single fermentation behind the crown cap.

Ancestral – Apple with Hops is the sparkling fruit wine from von Wiesen in Bensheim, in which no second fruit is added to the apple, but rather a flower. Hops are truly present in the bottle here, specifically Citra, an aromatic variety that is more fragrant than bitter.

Green apple, citrus peel, and warm yeast bread

In the glass, there is a cloudy, pale straw-yellow sparkling wine whose aroma leans first toward green and yellow apple. Over this lies that floral note that anyone who has ever held a pale ale will immediately recognize, and fresh-cut yeast bread waits at the very back.

Because the fruit sugar has been completely fermented out, nothing remains of sweetness. With 6.8 percent alcohol, the bottle feels lighter than a Sekt from the Bergstraße nearby. The 7.7 grams of acidity per liter still keep it lively without it becoming sharp.

Roasted aromas are its domain, and the food paired with it can certainly be salty. A sheet-pan tarte flambée, grilled bell peppers with black blisters on their skin, and fried sardines find in it a counterpart that picks up the smoke rather than drowning it out. Even a bratwurst with a brown crust won't ruffle its feathers.

Why hops in the glass aren't intoxicating

Hops climb, and the cones of the female plant are harvested—delicate structures made of thin bracts. Inside them sit tiny yellow glands, and they contain everything the hops have to impart to the must in terms of bitter substances, resins, and essential oils.

They provide no sugar and therefore no alcohol; they act merely as a spice, just as pepper spices. Citra was bred as an aromatic variety rather than a bittering one, which is why the sparkling wine smells of citrus peel, gooseberry, and ripe mango, without the palate contracting anywhere. Bitterness is present, but it remains in the background.

A fermentation that ends in the bottle

With the méthode ancestrale, there is no second fermentation, but only a single one that is interrupted at the right moment. The apple must ferments spontaneously with the yeasts already residing on the skins in old and new barrique barrels. In the middle of this fermentation, it is bottled and sealed.

Whatever fruit sugar remains is worked through by the yeast behind the crown cap. The resulting carbon dioxide can no longer escape, dissolves into the must, and becomes effervescence. This requires neither tirage nor added yeast nor external sugar, and after a good three months, the bottle is ready to drink.

The apples come from organic farms and old traditional orchards in the surrounding area, including the Obsthof am Steinberg near Frankfurt. The same hands also bottle Winzersekt in Bensheim, and you can hear the care in the effervescence. Alongside it are the Ancestral with Quince as well as its dark-berried brother, and among the sparkling bottles, you will find everything else that builds up pressure.