2018 Weingut Dautel Spatburgunder Wurttemberg, Germany

Winemaker Notes
Fruit is picked in the early morning, quite cool and mostly destemmed. For single vineyard wines, up to 30% whole cluster is used, but in the estate it is almost all destemmed. Christian wants only whole berries here (any crushed fruit is sorted out) and there is some carbonic fermentation in the open tank – a 3 week maceration and fermentation. The wine sees only remontage for the first part of fermentation; it is only after the ferment is really running that Christian employs pigage. The wine is pressed and racked into old 2500L and used barrique and is kept on the lees without lees stirring for 11 months before racking and bottling.

Press
Rated 91 Points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Spätburgunder trocken displays a dark cherry color and opens with a pure and refreshing, yet still reductive bouquet of blackcurrant, cherries, cassis, underwood, toast and iodine. Bottled with 13% alcohol this is a very charming, light-footed and refreshing Pinot with a silky-texture, stimulating acidity and phenolic grip. The wine is fine and intense, always fresh and tight on the finish, representing a great vintage for Pinot Noir—the finish is pure, long and intensely fruity yet without sweetness or any masking oaky, toasty notes. This is simply an impressive Pinot in the entry-level price class. Tasted from AP 31 19 in June 2020.