GEWÜRZTRAMINER Qvevri 2016 (Domaine Bannwarth)

The Gewürztraminer Qvevri wine is an "orange wine", i.e a white wine macerated with grape skins. Its other particularity is its Qvevri vinification, a unique method in France, which identically reproduces the Georgian vinification methods practiced for 6000 years.

THE TERROIR

The Gewürztraminer grapes intended for the Qvevri vinification are selected at the harvest time. They come from all the estate plots, including part of the Bildstoeckle locality.

The plots are distributed over two different types of soil : the first one dates from the end of the Eocene (-33 to -37 million years), when the region was completely emerged after the seas withdrawal at the end of the Jurassic period.

This geological era also corresponds to the beginning of the Hercynian massif subsidence which gave birth to the Rhinegraben. The soil is remarkable for its thickness reaching a hundred meters in places, and for the diversity of its constituents which range from fine marls to clay or sandstone marls, limestone sandstones, conglomerates and pebbles. These sedimentary rocks were formed in a lake environment under a tropical climate. The second type of soil dates from the last earth glaciation period, in the Quaternary, two million years ago, and it consists of Loess, a light yellow, porous and permeable silt which were deposited by the winds.

WINEMAKING

The vinification method used to make this cuvée is totally atypical : no intervention is required, yet a good monitoring has to be done. The Qvevris are large buried dolias with a capacity of around 1500 liters.

It is the grapes quality that will entirely condition the smooth fermentation progress. Only grapes with perfect maturity and balance are selected, tasting takes place on site in the vineyards ; the grapes skin must also be perfect without any alteration.

The grapes are enclosed in a one meter high pocket which is placed in the buried and sealed Qvevri. Alcoholic fermentation starts spontaneously with the native yeasts, then gives way to the malolactic fermentation carried out by the lactic acid bacteria. The must remains in contact with the skins for about six months, the fermentations and the ageing are therefore done in the same container without any manual intervention or sulphits addition.

The bag containing the grapes skins is then removed from the Qvevris, yet the juice continues its ageing in the Qvevris for another 4 months.

The wine is then racked and bottled without fining, filtration or sulphits addition. As for all the white wines vinified in Qvevris, without filtration or fining, the juice is a little cloudy in the glass and the initially orange color darkens after 24 hours, under the oxygenation effect. This phenomenon is normal, they are natural wines.

SERVICE ADVISE

The 2016 vintage has very few residual sugar (4,3 g/l). No sweetness is feeled in the palate, so there is no need to drink this wine fresh, it will rather be served at 14°C.

Open the bottle 1/2 hour before serving.