Konni & Evi - Konrad Buddrus & Evi Wehner
Germany, Saxony Anhalt, Laucha
Konni & Evi's latest wines are here, and we're very excited to share them with you.
A couple of weeks ago when we gathered in the park to taste new arrivals and wines that we'd held back to settle, these made us stop.
These releases from 2019 shared the focus & purity that we first tasted in barrel back when we met Konrad Buddrus & Evi Wehner at their cellar in Saale-Unstrut, Saxony Anhalt, near Leipzig. With the prior vintage we'd received, this had sadly not been the case. Thanks to a combination of cork problems and transportation issues, the wines arrived in the country bereft of the character that made them so special.
So it was with a wave of joy and relief that we tasted these, each one singing. Working organically with biodynamic principles, Konni & Evi are a committed pair, in a unique location.
Mostly south-east facing, they work steep slopes on triassic limestone. Some plots were planted in the 1930s at a high density (10,000 vines per hectare), contrasted by others that were cultivated when this region was part of the DDR, with rows of vines planted 3 metres apart to allow enormous Soviet tractors to work the vineyards.
The whites are vinified following the same process: grapes are picked early in the morning, and are left to macerate fairly cold for 2-6 days depending on the varietal, before being basket pressed straight to barrel where fermentation will begin.
The barrels are key to their process: using oak from the nearby Harz mountain, and built by a local cooper to Konni's specifications. First-use barrels are soaked with water for a year to remove as much oakiness as they can; but these species of oak are a tighter grain, even new they impart much less flavour.
We have tiny quantities available of the wines below, true expressions of their unique place, bottled directly from the barrel with no filtration.
Silvaner 2019
From a patchwork of plots planted with vines between 30 to 90 years old, on rocky limestone. A 5 day cold maceration in boxes before being pressed to barrel for a years elevage.
Silvaner Ziegental 2018
Ziegental, or 'Goat Valley' was the first plot they owned, south-east facing, surrounded by forest; it's always the slowest to ripen and the last to pick. A cold maceration of 6 days, the wine spends the first 6 months of the 2 year elevage under flor. After fermentation is finished, they top up the barrels a little. If it's tasting too reductive, Konni will fill a demijohn and leave outside to become just a little oxidative, before adding back to the barrel.
Weissburgunder 2019
From their younger plots of Pinot Blanc about 25 years old, the vines here grow on deeper soils of red clay with a limestone bed rock. Just a 4 day cold maceration before being pressed to barrel for a year.
Müller Thurgau 2019
From two plots on rocky limestone, half from their 'goat valley' vineyard planted in 1933, and the other from slightly younger vines at 50 years old. Fermented on the skins for 8 days, pressed during fermentation to retain a little reductive character and keep tannin low. A years elevage in Harz oak barrel before bottling directly.
Kasi 2019
The only wine done in stainless steel, named for their friend who gave them the vineyard in 2018: co-planted with 10 year old Pinot Gris and 40 year old Pinot Noir.
30% of the grapes are de-stemmed, everything ferments together on their skins for 3 weeks with no punchdowns, using a little run off juice to wet the cap. Basket pressed before fermentation is finished, it completes fermentation in tank, and rests a year.
For wholesale enquiries please email hello@winesutb.com
