Ried Ratschen 2018

A wine that toys with what Blaufränkisch can create in a wine; this has fine grained, elegant, pinprick tannins, with a more brooding flavour profile, like being in the thick of the forest. Bramble and wild strawberries are king here, with wet earth, pine needles, peonies and roses bringing up the rear. It's a wine that evokes gardens and meadows rather than fruits or orchards. 

From the Eisenberg DAC - meaning Iron Mountain, due to its green schist soils with high iron content - this is Blaufränkisch from a special North-East facing single vineyard of 57-year-old vines on sandy pebble soils. Farmed organically.

As the vineyard faces north, the fruit is harvested on average a week later than the Weinberg vineyard, which faces south. The slightly cooler site tends to bring something more linear to the wine. The wine fermented naturally and was aged for 24 months in 2000L barrels with small amounts of sulphur being the only addition.