Weingut Knipser – Marsannier – from experimental cultivation
The Marsannier 2022 is a dry, powerful cuvée made from the Marsanne and Viognier grape varieties by the Knipser winery in Laumersheim, Palatinate. The Knipser Marsannier displays juicy fruit, which is wonderfully balanced by a tangy acidity.
On the nose, it shows fruity notes of red apples and yellow pears; juicy peach and ripe apricot join in, along with light bitter notes of grapefruit, all rounded off by well-integrated oak. The wine displays power and fullness and, despite the ripe grapes, a lively acidity, which makes it a great food companion. It pairs well with rich sauces, pasta with cream sauces and mushrooms and smoked bacon, but also with the sweetness of seafood.
This is the seventh vintage of the Marsannier, which is not vinified as a dry version every year.
Winemaking – Weingut Knipser
The vines for this Marsannier grow in sites of the Knipser winery characterized by calcareous marl soil. It was only at the beginning of the 90s that the two white grape varieties from the Rhône, Marsanne and Viognier, were planted by the Knipser brothers as part of an experimental cultivation. It is called experimental cultivation because the two French grape varieties are not provided for or established in the Palatinate grape variety list, and thus, despite the high quality of the wine, it cannot be produced as a 'Qualitätswein' (quality wine). However, that did not matter to the Knipsers. They took the opportunity offered by the EU to import vine stock from other European countries to Germany, to plant these very varieties, and to see what could come of them, especially in light of climate change.
The selective hand-harvesting of the grapes in autumn usually takes place in several passes in order to harvest optimally ripe fruit. At the winery, all grapes are destemmed, meaning they are removed from the stems. The resulting mash is gently pressed in a tank press. Fermentation occurs spontaneously in new barriques from Burgundy, where the wine also undergoes a long maturation on the fine lees until bottling in late summer 2024.
Marsannier – a wine and its values
- Origin: Germany
- Growing region: Palatinate
- Grape variety: Marsanne, Viognier
- 13.5% vol alcohol
- 7.0 g/l acidity
- 5.9 g/l residual sugar