Passion N°1
by Robert Lingenfelder
The label
Art and wine can not be separated. Since wine excists, it has always played a major role in art and especially for the artists themselves. Therefore also this wine is connected with art.
Every single label is a piece of art in itself and is handmade and unique, as this idea also represents the wine – handmade and unique.
Red is an emotionally intense color. A color that stands for love, passion and dedication – words that I deeply connect with the making of this wine.
Black is associated with power as well as elegance and gives a feeling of depth and mystery. Pinot Noir represents the combination of these terms, like no other grape.
The haptic feeling of every brushstroke shows the profound structure of the wine. Embedded in a puristic artwork that indicats the two leading criteria for this product – authenticity and honesty.
My deepest gratitude goes to Bianca for your support and inspiration.
The wine
The idea behind Passion N°1 was to produce a honest, authenic and low-interventionist premium wine.
It is a single vineyard Pinot Noir Auslese from a small plot in the Pfalz region of Germany. Since almost 2000 years the special microclimate and soil in the Rhine Valley results in a continous history of successful viticulture.
The area around Großkarlbach, which is situated at the edge of the valley on the left bank of the river Rhine, is considered one of the sunniest and driest regions in Germany, but is still considered a cool climate setting on a global scale.
The acidity is at 6.2 g/l and the alcohol reaches 13.5 % ABV.
The total production of the 2013 Passion N°1 Pinot Noir is limited to 6 4 0 bottles.
The vineyard
The grapes come from a small 2000 m² plot from the Burgweg site in Grosskarlbach which has slight south to south-east facing slope. The soil is dominated by a thin layer of loess-loam top soil covering solid tertiary limestone rock underneath.
No herbicides and botryticides where used – Mildew was treated with conventional fungicides as there is no alternative except copper which I strictly reject to use out of a sustainability beliefs. A diverse cover crop is grown in every row.
Defoliation is not practised, however side shoots are removed from the grape zone manually.
The grapes are all strictly picked by hand into 20l buckets to guarantee a high and healthy grape quality.
We aimed for a yield below 50 hl/ha.
The vinification
With a sugar content of 97.6° Oechsle the grapes were harvested and destemmed before the spontanous barrel fermentation starts in open Barriques.
The mash standing time was almost 4 weeks before with the extraction done by pigeage. No pumping involved in the entire vinification process. No chaptalization. Nothing added except of sulfer. Pressing was done with a small 50 l hydropress.
Batonage was realised to underline the importance of the yeast for an individual terroir wine. No added malolactic bacteria. First sulferization between February and April.
Maturation in minimum second year palatinate oak barriques for almost 24 month.
