Vinification
Depending on the vintage, the cellar master, Johannes Becker, vinifies 40 percent of the wines in Fuder, the traditional Mosel 1,000-liter oak casks. The wines ferment at cool temperatures and relatively slowly with ambient yeasts. In fact, the cellar master’s work is mostly focused on this traditional vinification of the wines, including tasting and knowing when to find the right moment to bottle the wines. Rieslings fermented in Fuder have very good structure. The wines aged in large casks have a gentle aeration on the lees, which, along with the ambient yeast ferments, gives them a certain durability.
The Fuder, which are used mostly for Riesling as well as for Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) and red varieties, come from Holzküferei Hösch, one of the few remaining cooperages in Germany. Hösch gets its wood from the Palatine and Hunsrück forests. The wines are given time to mature and harmonize in these big oak casks. The Spätlese and Auslese wines are bottled between June and August of the following harvest year.
Over many decades, the Fuder are filled once again with fresh grape musts each autumn, but not to give them wood aromas, as it is widely used with toasted new oak barrels, which have a capacity of about 225 liters. On the contrary, the typical and pronounced fruity-aromatic components of the Riesling grape remain, which depends on the site and vintage, until the bottling and for many years by vinifying a wine in Fuder.
The remaining grapes are just as expertly vinified in stainless-steel tanks. The quality of the wines in stainless steel is the same as in Fuder. Only the type of wine is different.
The Fuder, which are used mostly for Riesling as well as for Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc) and red varieties, come from Holzküferei Hösch, one of the few remaining cooperages in Germany. Hösch gets its wood from the Palatine and Hunsrück forests. The wines are given time to mature and harmonize in these big oak casks. The Spätlese and Auslese wines are bottled between June and August of the following harvest year.
Over many decades, the Fuder are filled once again with fresh grape musts each autumn, but not to give them wood aromas, as it is widely used with toasted new oak barrels, which have a capacity of about 225 liters. On the contrary, the typical and pronounced fruity-aromatic components of the Riesling grape remain, which depends on the site and vintage, until the bottling and for many years by vinifying a wine in Fuder.
The remaining grapes are just as expertly vinified in stainless-steel tanks. The quality of the wines in stainless steel is the same as in Fuder. Only the type of wine is different.