2016 Weingut Messmer Spätburgunder 1-Liter

100% certfied organic Spätburgunder (aka Pinot Noir). Approximately 70% of the blend is kept in stainless steel, while the remaining 30% spends 3-4 months in 500-900 litre old oak barrels. Bottled unfined. 12.5% alcohol. 

This is a delicious, light bodied, rustic German Pinot with a little bit of bottle age adding to its savory complexity. Aromas and flavors of strawberry, raspberry,  blackcurrant, forest floor, fresh earth, light toasty oak and leather, with a distinctly spicy finish. Crushable and extremely food friendly- think of it like villages level Burgundy on a budget.

Weingut Messmer, in the Pfalz region, was founded by Herbert and Elizabeth Messmer in 1960. It is situated in Burrweiler, in the south-west of Germany, less than 50 miles from the border with France and to the north-west of Stuttgart. The yellow sandstone buildings had already been home to winemaking for around 250 years before they arrived. Today their son Martin Meßmer and winemaker, Jonas Bosch, are responsible for the wines. The vineyards cover 30 hectares, with around two thirds of the area planted with white varieties Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc and the rest with red varieties, including Pinot Noir.The terroir is made up of seven different soil types: slate, red sandstone, granite, limestone, loam, sand and ‘muschelkalk’ - a calcareous soil with substantial deposits of fossilised mussel shells. In the winery fermentations are cool, slow and small batch; grapes are only ever partially de-stemmed; and wines are bottled without fining and with only the gentlest filtration.