A Unique Wine for a Unique Experience!
A few weeks back we had the chance to share ten facts about biodynamic wine we think you should know.. This week, we are excited to share a new wine stocked in our cellar, ready to be shipped or brought to the office as part of our All Natural, All Good tasting. Johannes Zillinger Revolution White Solera Non-Vintage from the Niederösterreich is a singular expression of white wine.
It is from grapes farmed Biodynamically and bottled without sulfites, making it a truly natural wine. The totally dry wine is comprised of fifty percent Chardonnay, 25% Riesling, and 25% Scheurebe, a grape crossing developed at a German research center in the early 1900’s. The Chardonnay gives the wine texture and body, the Scheurebe adds fruitiness and a floral character, while Riesling is important for acidity.
Besides being a very unique blend, the wine is made in a very unique method. Solera refers to a fractional blending system. Although it is used to make and age almost all Sherries, it is rarely encountered outside of southern Spain. A solera consists of several levels of barrels, where new wine enters from the top to replace wine that has made its way down to the bottom level and is then drawn off for bottlings. This means that each time a wine is bottled, at least a tiny portion of the original wine goes into the blend, along with a part of each vintage added since then. In this case, it agitates the unfiltered wine, stirring up solids to give flavor and structure. It also introduces oxygen, which is a little bit risky since Johannes eschews the use of sulphur, the most common form of protection against a wine being exposed to too much oxygen.
Whereas most white wines are made by removing the grapes from the skins so as to avoid bitterness and preserve freshness, Johannes kept the skins in with the during part of fermentation to leach structure. Fermentation itself occurred partly in amphorae, big clay pots known for adding a rustic character to wines.
All of this may sound a little bit out there, but we promise you the wine is delicious, showing lovely fruit, herbal, and earth notes. Care to taste it for yourself? Feel free to snag a bottle today, entering ALLNATURAL at checkout for $5 off your purchase of this wine. If you would like to learn a little bit more about this wine and other natural wines, make sure to book an All Natural, All Good tasting for your team. We are back offering live, in-person tastings, and can also ship bottles to remote attendees. If your office isn’t quite open yet, but you would like to get the group together, we would be happy to host you at one of our partner wineries in the Bay Area! We hope to sip some natural wine with you soon!