Appellation: Mosel
Cuvée: Little Bastard
Colour: White
Grapes: Basically Riesling 60%, Sauvignon Blanc 25%, Muller Thurgau 12%, skin-fermented Muscat 3%
About: An alternative vision of Riesling blend from the Mosel, bone dry, slightly cloudy from skin contact and zero clarification, light, savoury, clean and so very drinkable with plenty of pleasure from the peach and green apple fruit. As fun as the name suggests.
Vines
Location, parcels: the Riesling from the Kröv Letterlay vineyard, boasting a mix of younger plants as well as 45-yr old vines. This vineyard has very shallow soils of grey slate, and the plants tend to suffer in hot vintages although this stress can produce some of the best grapes in the region when handled as they are with a light touch in the vineyard. The Sauvignon Blanc comes from the nearby Kinheimer Hubertuslay vineyard, also on slate soils.
Size ha: 9 (selected from a total)
Age: 8 and 45 year old
Soils: grey slate
Exposition: all different
Altitude m: 100-200
Training: on wire
Farming and philosophy: certified Organic
Average yield hl/ha: 65
Climate: cool but change in the air
Winemaking
Varieties fermented separately in stainless steel by natural yeast with a few hours skin contact, the Muscat three days on skins, then racked and blended into 1900L old oak foudres for 3 months during which malo takes place. Touch of CO2 deliberately left in the wine for protection. Bottled by hand right after malo and straight out of the barrel to keep a touch of CO2 and floating fine lees for protection against oxygen. Unfined, unfiltered, zero added sulphur.
Vintage Notes 2018
Hot and dry year.
Bottles produced: 10,000.
Date bottled: 2019-03-29.
Alcohol %: 11.5.
SO2 Total: 0 added.
Vintage Notes 2019
Very hot and dry summer which caused sunburn, acids a bit higher than 2018 (which was also hot and dry) but some timely rain in august boosted acids.
Vintage Notes 2020
The weather: dry and hot season until mid september, then cold and a bit rainy, mid to end of September giving some juice to the grapes.
Yield hl/ha: 60
Harvested: early September San to early October Rie
Bottles produced: 19500
Date bottled: March 29th
Alcohol %: 11.5
SO2 Total: 0 added
Vintage Notes 2021
The weather: cool and rainy season, lots of problems with downy mildew and black rot, compare yield with other years, had to buy quite a lot of fruit from other organic producers that were less affected. Still… not the flood disaster of neighbouring regions.
Bit more Riesling than usual. Took a long time to ferment dry.
Yield hl/ha: 25
Harvested: mid September to mid October
Bottles produced: 22,000
Date bottled: 31st May
Alcohol %: 11
SO2 Total: 0 added
Tasting: 2022-12-12 mineral, lemon, strawberry, kumquat aromas. Bracing acidity hits the palate first but there’s a roundness to the texture, and sweet and saltiness of fruit to balance the initial shock! More lemon, lime than usual apricot. Still great fun – best to have some fatty food with it.