"For our vintage 2008 we had in mind paying even more attention to our vintner bubbly wines and expanding our range of wines", says Ehret, "it was important to me to give the wines more momentum, fruit and freshness particularly through a not too late picking". His success definitely proves that he was right in his assumption.
Bubbly production of the Winemaker's Society was expanded from two to eight different sorts and tastes with this vintage. Since it is compulsary that quality bubblies from certain wine-growing regions, in this case Baden, ferment in the bottle for at least nine months, it was not possible to send in the wines any sooner for at the federal wine award. "This was the very first time we took part in a bubbly contest and we are extremely surprised and overwhelmed by our success", admits the winemaker.
Five of the total of seven participating wines of the Laufen Altenberg vintner's bubblies received a gold medal, among them a Pinot Blanc nature, a Pinot Blanc brut, Pinot brut, Pinot Noir Blanc de Noir brut and a Chardonnay brut. Ehret is particularly proud of the latter. The other two received silver medals with 4.4 of 5 possible points each and almost received a gold medal as well, which is awarded once you reach 4.5 points. Thus, all seven participating wines were nicely decorated.
Two of the winemaker's bubbly wines are very special; one of them "brut nature", about which the winemaker says: "As we know, yeast is created when you ferment wine in a bottle. This yeast is "cleaned" (German: degorgieren) out of the bottle. The thus missing amount is refilled with dosage, as it is called in the scene, which often is a sweet wine or something like that. For the "brut nature" we chose a very dry wine so that there was no increase in the residual sweetness, which in both wines is only 1.5 grams per liter - so it is actually "nature". Apparently, these dosages are part of the most significant secrets of the worldwide famous champagne cellars. (d.simon)
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