2022 Ried Spitzerberg-Obere Roterd 1ÖTW

“Untere Roterd” – that was the origin of all my winelife. In this Cru my grandmother owned a tiny vineyard of 0,17 hectares. And here is where I had my first romantic harvest experience. Well, it took only one afternoon to bring in the harvest of a whole vintage, but it was a celebration!
Of the grapes from this field blend vineyard, my father produced three tiny barrels of wine – which he emptied together with his friends during the year, while making music, singing, having fun.
These moments: That’s where my wine roots come from.

Later, this very old vineyard was digged out, and 15 years later I planted my first Blaufränkisch there. Still without knowing that one day it will represent a big part of my life. While I rented and bought small vineyard plots here and there, and while my property was growing, I always observed the Roterd with a special eye. I wanted it so much to qualify for Erste Lage! Though, all my ambitions could not make Untere Roterd shine as brilliantly as Obere Roterd it. And so I had to accept, that the vineyard of my Grandmother stayed Village appellation, while the Obere Roterd, just 10 meters above it, got the Erste LAge appellation. And for a reason!

Obere Roterd is a small cru with aproximately 5 hectares planted with vines. It stretches We own 9 vineyard plots on that wonderful Riede, which make a total of exactly 2.26 ha. Roterd stretches like a tiny strip on an altitude between 210 and 240 meters, bordering the bushes of the natural reserve.

The soils  is sandy, very dry limestone, including also bigger and smaller pieces of limestone.
The wines from Obere Roterd are – like nearly all wines from Spitzerberg – marked by elegant freshness and a very dense structure. Typical and unique for the OBere Roterd is a soft, creamy texture that I like to compare with Cashmere: warm, soft, but not heavy at all.  Even more, I feel an empathic emotion in this wine, like mother love. This wine wants that you feel good, happy (while Obere Spitzer does not care how you feel, it just wants to perform!)
But, of course, I have a romantic relationship with this vineyard.

Regarding winemaking: it is just the same as with all of our wines. Handpicking as early as the tannins are mature, half of the grapes are foot stomped and are pressed once they start fermeting. The other half is fermented (all with natural yeasts, of course) in open vats, pushing down by hand softly during extraction for about 10 days.
We keep the wines in old wooden barrels for two years, bottle without filtration and mature them in the bottle for another year before releasing.