Bullenheim in October 2022
Dear club members,
Everyone has their center of the world, and that's a good thing!
I briefly thought about renaming the motto for October to "Big blocks - don't make a mess". You can see why that would certainly have been right, right at the back of the wine selection. In fact, today's topic is home and the diversity of the Franconian wine region.
In Franconia we have three different soil formations on which the vines grow. The actual landscape formation of today's Franconia only started in the Tertiary, i.e. about 40 million years ago, and again it was the water with its erosive power that sawed through valleys, mountains and plains and finally in connection with the rift valley on the Upper Rhine a gigantic flow direction reversal of the whole river courses caused. This is the history of the origin of the Franconian soil formations. Today we find the soils of the Gipskeuper in the Steigerwald, the shell limestone in the Main triangle and the Bundsandstein in the Mainviereck.
Today I would like to show you how the different soil formations affect the Franconian wines. I would like to introduce you to a long-time companion. Namely Nils Hohnheit from the northernmost corner of Franconia - Hörstein. If you don't know Hörstein, Nils' home is near Alzenau, which is in the commuter belt of Frankfurt am Main, but is just about Franconia. I want to say thank god. Nils and I learned winemaking together and then did our winegrowing technician course at the state institute in Veitshöchheim in the same year. Nils says about himself that he produces individual and terroir-shaped wines with passion. I just can approve that too. Above all, that Nils has a passion for wine. Because he decided at a young age to take over a winery and thus to realize his dream. A genuine newcomer! I personally take my hat off to that. His wines grow on federal sandstone (more precisely on primary rock). A real specialty!
In this package I would like to give you the opportunity to delve deeper into the world of wine. For this reason I have packed you three different great wines in the October package. It was important to me to show you wines from the treasury here, as these are no longer covered by carbonic acid and you can better guess the different soil characteristics.
gypsum keuper
LUKAS SCHMIDT – 2017 Scheurebe Big Growth /// Location Paradise
Scheurebe at it's best. Our Scheurebe GG from 2017 is a truly complex wine. Grown on the aromatic and multi-layered gypsum soil. Vinified from grapes from vines over 50 years old.
shell limestone
MEIER SCHMIDT – 2018 Silvaner Grosses Gewächs /// Lage Lump
As many of you know, we also cultivated vines on the Main together with our former business partner. There we also had a Silvaner Grosses Gewächs vineyard from Escherndorfer Lump in the heart of the Main triangle. A great powerful wine, with a lot of depth and radiance.
Federal sandstone (primordial rock)
NILS HOHNHEIT – 2020 Riesling ten sips /// Location Abtsberg
As in the past, the best of the best bears the predicate "ZEHNTSCHLUCK". Once withheld from the sovereigns, this wine had to be ceded in kind to settle the tax liability in the form of a tithe. Since the gentlemen always chose the best drop of a vintage! From the top parcels of the Abtsberg we produce our flagship wines with strong, storable and balanced wines.
Have fun trying!
your favorite winemaker
