2016 Ried KOBELN “Liebkind”

Site & soil

At 300 metres above sea level, Ried Kobeln is the highest-elevation vineyard on the Spitzerberg. Here, the layer of topsoil is very thin and exposure to the wind exceptionally open, resulting in extremely low yields. In 2008, a parcel of ​​1.1 hectares was planted, which yields on average about 1500–2000 kg of grapes. These particular Blaufränkisch berries are quite small, with an average diameter of 8mm, and therefore bring a lot of tannin and aromatic material into the highly concentrated wine. This makes Liebkind a wine that needs even more time to mature. Experience has shown that its elegance & finesse reveal themselves fully only after about five to six years of cellaring.

Harvest & vinification

In order to avoid marmalade flavours, it is very important in this extremely dry vineyard to not wait a single day too long to pick the grapes – they are harvested by hand, and every overripe berry is carefully removed. In the cellar, the grapes are lightly crushed and macerated partly with the stems in open fermentation vats. This extraction is very gentle and occurs completely without pumping, and fermentation begins after a few days thanks to the wild yeasts. The spontaneous fermentation proceeds very slowly and at room temperature; the must is neither heated nor cooled. In this way, the distinctive expression of Ried Kobeln is retained without any signs of extreme heat finding their way into in the wine. After about twenty days, the wine is pressed and then matured in a large, old wooden cask. During the twenty months spent maturing, the wine is racked only one time, and ultimately bottled without filtration.

Vintage 2016

Finally, some water!, the vines sighed, because during the summer of 2016 we had some nice little bits of rainfall now and then, which helped the vines to relax after the stressful dry and extremely hot year 2015.  For our work in the vineyards, the rain sometimes offered complications. Even greater, since 2016 was our first year of working with organic treatments! But the vines and the grapes really enjoyed the water. Maturing was slow but very steady, the sugar content grew very slowly and stayed moderate, so that we could wait with the harvest until the second half of September and profit from a full aromatic maturation. The acidity was very fine and elegant, the grapes were healthy, nicely balanced and showed a very relaxed sense of flavour.