Release The Bats! Fledermausen have Landed

2NATURKINDER

Michael & Melanie Voelker
Germany, Franconia, Kitzengen

Things are looking cautiously optimistic over at 2Naturkinder. A good year is well-needed after their 2020, and one could be on the cards. 

After the late frost event of last year, this has been the slowest start to a season since Melanie & Michael Voelker returned to Kitzingen nearly a decade ago.
Buds finally broke towards the end of April, although the lack of rain received thus far does spell another drought for summer.

We're already past the date on which frost wiped out 80% of the 2020 yields (May 12th) and historically, May 15th is the last date of the season a major frost can be expected. Never say never, but our fingers are crossed for the Voelkers this year. 

We've just received a handful of the triumphant 2019's from Melanie & Michael, the year in which they learnt to handle the drought that is becoming a regular fixture in Central Europe.

We caught up with Michael in early April before bud break as he finished hammering their last post into a new 1 hectare vineyard. 1000 posts and 25km of wire required to build a trellising frame for the young plants!

Is there any impact to the vines after a major frost event like you saw last year?

”Potentially, it depends what you did to the vine a little bit. The whole bud break process comes from the plants reserves: it doesn't have leaves yet so the engine isn't really running - no photosynthesis - so it uses that reserve for the fist bud break. When you have frost it needs to do that again, so it depletes even more of its reserves. 

”It's going to be interesting to see, but we do try to not push them too hard. I hope it's going to be alright, there will be an impact for sure. Not all the plants have the nice strong canes that they normally would have had, which makes it tricky to prune. But we'll see if we've reacted well!

”Another thing we've had is not enough rain so far. If it's not gonna be a rainy April then we need to plan for another dry summer. So the next drought is almost certainly ahead. We've started getting used to that. It just means you have to be a bit more moderate with yields which are relatively low here already. It's not our first, so we are learning to adapt. 
It can lead to fermentation problems if you don't manage it well because you can have a lack of amino acids in the juice. That was a huge lesson in 2018 for a lot of European growers when we had the first big drought. “

Could you tell us a little bit about the 2019 Fledermaus Weiss & Fledermaus Rot that have just landed?

”I actually tried the 2016 and 2017 vintages a couple of days ago and they were quite funky! Depending on your definition of funkiness I suppose. They're not really my favourite vintages. 2018 was super clean and precise, like 2015. One of the reasons being that I reduced the quantity and sorted out a few batches that I didn't fully trust, saved them in reserve for the Vater blend which we allow a little sulphur to be added to if needed. I don't want to add any sulphur to Fledermaus.

”So now the Fledermaus is just three batches: our favourite big barrel of Muller Thurgau, a medium sized barrel of Sylvaner and a small tank of Riesling. 2019 is a very similar blend to 2018, Melanie says it's even better but I struggled to compare them!

”The Sylvaner has a little skin-contact overnight before we press. The challenge with Sylvaner is it's a very pectine-heavy flesh, so you have to press long and hard if you do direct. If you give it a little more time you get the natural enzymes populating the must, and then it's a little easier to press. It gives it a different fruitiness to a hard direct press. 

”The red one, like always is a single vineyard Pinot Meunier. 2019 were mostly very healthy grapes, just with a little bit of heat damage so it was a low yield. Just one 1200 litre tank for almost 8000 square metres!

”They were hand de-stemmed on boards like the Jura, and left in boxes for a week of semi carbonic maceration before pressing. That's always just finished in a tank.”

How is the bat conservation project going?

”The bats are if anything, in decline. We still get our guano, it will keep going into the vineyard. But in general they're going down in the area. We just have super small colonies in the area, but tiny families of like 15 different species. But they don't live in big colonies, they're in smaller groups. 

”Where we get our guano from though, you can see a continuous drop in numbers because they're just less food for them. Fewer insects to eat. The whole bat thing; when you support that species you're supporting a whole ecosystem. The bats can only thrive if there's enough caterpillars, the caterpillars can only survive if there's enough butterflies reproducing. They're really an indicator of an ecosystem. It's quite sad really.

”They're certainly around though; a week ago I was terrified, working late down here in the winery. I walked back up to our house and there was a huge bat that surprised me in the office. I tried for 2 hours to help him out but it didn't want to leave. I had to just leave the window open and hope for the best!

”I really do like the guano as a fertiliser, especially for that vineyard where it's incredibly tricky to get compost in. Pinot Meunier & Muller Thurgau need more of a nitrogen supply than other varieties; that was definitely something I learnt as I stopped tilling in 2016.

”Some varieties don't really care about that, there's enough nitrogen they can access. But Pinot Meunier, Muller Thurgau & Domina don't handle that too well. They need more nitrogen supply and that's tricky without tilling. That lack of nitrogen is something that can cause instability, mousiness risks. So they get fed batshit!”

JUST LANDED

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2019 - Landwein - Vater & Sohn - Muller Thurgau, Silvaner, Bacchus
2018 - Landwein - Fledermaus Weiss - Muller Thurgau, Silvaner, Riesling

SKINS

2018 - Landwein - Weinschwärmer - Pinot Gris, Riesling

ROSE

2019 - Landwein - Black Betty - Domina

RED

2019 - Landwein - Fledermaus Rot - Pinot Meunier
2017 - Landwein - Spatburgunder - Pinot Noir

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Every Grape Counts! 2Naturkinder 2020

2NATURKINDER

Michael & Melanie Voelker
Germany, Franconia, Kitzengen

Michael & Melanie Voelker suffered monumental losses to their crop when frost hit on the night of May 15th. Usually operating at yields of 35 hectolitres per hectare, this year Michael considers himself lucky to even have 15 hl/ha. The once-a-decade frost event means the 2020 releases from Kitzingen will be scarce. Nevertheless we have just received a brace of new wines from the Voelkers including two new cuvees, cause for celebration in the face of upcoming adversity.

We spoke to Michael in late October to discuss the new wines, and were surprised to find harvest was not quite finished:

Good afternoon Michael, how are you going?

I’m alright, it’s calming down slowly. It’s actually our last pick tomorrow. We’re picking second generation Riesling. The frost wiped out the first generation buds; but they do have a second generation - sometimes a third - as a backup. Normally we would have picked this vineyard in late September! The backup-buds broke after the night of frost, and some produced a serious amount of grapes. The Heimat Silvaner will just be enough for one barrique, the Pinots will be at least a few hundred litres. It will be interesting to see how these ferments go...

One more day, the end is in sight! Could you tell us about the two new wines we’ll be receiving this week?

2018 Weinschwärmer
It's a blend of two wines. The two varieties share one special vineyard: on Eselsberg, the hill where the Heimat Silvaner and the Fledermaus grow, there is a hectare with two thirds Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and one third Riesling. That was my Dad’s favourite vineyard, and was the last one that we were still making wine for his portfolio with, before he retired. I didn’t want to take this one off him until he was ready.

The two varieties ripen at different times, so we don’t pick them together. We fermented them separately. The Pinot Gris is skin fermented for 10 days, the Riesling is a direct press, to bring that razor sharp acidity. I've played with those two for a couple of years, trying to find the right blend; this was the blend Melanie approved of. It’s dedicated to the Weinschwärmer: the brightly coloured moths that live in the area; a delicacy for our bats!


2019 Vater & Sohn
Believe it or not it took me half a year to find the right blend for this one. This is a blend from 12 initial wines - I left a couple out that didn’t work well with the wine in the end- we have about 10 here. I get the wines on the table, try to find the best possible mix. From 10 wines; if you make a mix of 5 different ratios, you need to wait a week really until you can judge the result properly, the wines have to react to one another. Melanie will have a smell - shake her head- so then: we try the next version next weekend! For half a year until we find the right one!
Fortunately or not, that’s not a problem we’ll have this year, with such little wine everything has to work out. But, everything has worked out so far, given the small quantities. If we had this x3, 2020 would have been a breathtaking vintage.

So the frost was as bad as I’ve heard?

I was glad I got anything at all. One of the guys I regularly get grapes from was also completely destroyed too. Thankfully there’s a third guy who I infrequently get a small batch from, he co-runs Demeter in this region, teaches organic farming. I’ve helped him out with sheep in the past. As he’s a teacher he doesn’t need all of his grapes so I was able to have 10 of his vineyards to pick this year. That kind of saved our ass, otherwise it would’ve just been a few thousand litres which is… not enough.

My Dad was saying I have to expect a frost like this every 10 years, though it's certainly getting more dangerous with the vegetation season starting earlier and earlier with climate change- which is a clear pattern. If you have an earlier bud break then the period of time between bud break and the last night of frost that you can expect- mid May - that period gets longer and longer. And that makes it just more likely that you get an event of frost hitting the plants. So it won't have been the last time, but I'd be quite happy if it was the last time for the next couple of years. I'm happy to just deal with the drought for a while, because that's not going to go away, not in our lifetime.

That’s becoming a frequent occurrence?

It was the 3rd year of drought in a row. We’re getting used to it, that's our job as farmers- to adapt to that. 2018 was the first Europe-wide drought that we had, with quite a few producers having fermentation problems for the first time in their lives. Because we had a fairly humid - great, vegetation wise - Spring in 2018, we had a lot of fruit on the grapevines. Everybody was like “Yay, jackpot!” And then it just stopped raining. The result was that there was not enough nitrogen available for the plants, because when the soil is dry, roots don’t have the water they need to transport stuff. Ions won't move in a completely dry environment.

So then we ended up having not enough amino acids in some of the juice and that leads to fermentation problems. In 2019 we adapted to that. I just reduced the yields when I noticed it was going in a similar direction. And that worked out certainly, but this year there was so little left on the vines (after the frost) that for us it didn’t really make a difference: if you only have two bunches per plant, whatever water you get is gonna be enough.

Beyond the up-front losses; has 2020 put paid to any future plans for the time being?

The vineyard that used to produce Black Betty, we call our garden vineyard - we have a garden at the bottom that’s become a bit of a biotope- I’ve pulled up the Domina in 2017 and planted a traditional mix of about 20 varieties. Everything was a co-plantation back in the past; that was an insurance for the producer, if one variety didn't perform well one year, then maybe the others would. But every region has a unique composition of varieties. I planted the composition that is supposed to have been the typical one in this area. It was supposed to give us grapes for the first time this year but the frost saw to that. We went through though, picked two buckets. Literally. Every grape counts!

I planted another hectare this year, about half of the plot is planted with a mix of six different hybrids, so it’s supposed to become a field blend. The other half is now home to an once thought extinct member of the Pinot family. It ripens two weeks after Pinot Noir, with smaller berries and thicker skins. The German name is “Fränkischer Burgunder”. That plot and the garden vineyard will both take another four or five years before being bottled as a single vineyard expression.

NOW IN STOCK

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2019 - Vater & Sohn - Muller Thurgau, Silvaner, Bacchus
Bottled in August 2020.

2018 - Weinschwärmer - Pinot Gris, Riesling
The two batches were blended in April 2019 into two barrels and were bottled as Weinschwärmer in March 2020.

SKIN MACERATED

2017 - Wilde Heimat - Silvaner
40-year old Silvaner vineyard, grown on the steepest point of the hill on meager Keuper soil. Loads of sun, hard to farm. 2/3 of the grapes were fermented on the skins for a week, the rest was pressed after two nights of skin-contact. Aging in 60-year old oak. The wines came together in summer 2019 and remained in a tank until bottling in March 2020.

2016 - Wilde Heimat - Silvaner
In ‘16, about 50% of the grapes were fermented on the skins for ten days the rest was pressed after a night of skin-contact. Aged in 60-year old oak, the wines were blended in spring 2018,bottled in July 2018.

2018 Heimat Silvaner - Silvaner
35 year old vines, farmed organically for more than 20 years.
The destemmed grapes always ferment quickly. After pressing the wine went into a 600l barrel, a barrique and a tank before it got racked & blended into a relatively new 1200l barrel in summer 2019 (so it comes with a gentle kiss from Franconian oak).

RED

2018 - Spätburgunder - Pinot Noir
After two trickier vintages 2018 was very satisfying. Fantastic grapes and a higher quantity than the years before. Racked and blended into a bigger barrel in summer 2019 before being bottled in March 2020.

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OUR MARCOS AS HUMAN LADDER TO FETCH MIRABELLE PLUMS

A Chat with 2Naturkinder / Bat's Back

GERMANY, FRANCONIA, KITZINGEN

Micheal Voelker and Melanie Drese spent many years working in other fields, traveling the world and living in Heidelberg, Regensburg, London, and New York. In 2013 they returned to Bavarian Germany to begin taking over Michael’s father’s winery in Kitzingen. They began to make natural wines under the 2Naturkinder label as a side project for the winery, and in 2019 have fully expanded the project to take over the winery’s production. 

Our chat with Melanie (May 2020):

How has the pandemic affected you so far? Which challenges have you been facing? What became easier? 
It has affected us in different ways: First and foremost sales have dropped by 70 % I would say. We mostly export our wines to different countries and 70 % of our importers cannot sell any wines to restaurants at the moment. A lot of our distributers try to find a creative new way to sell the wines but it is not easy, especially when you only work with restaurants. It is obviously easier for those who have private clients or who are able to sell online.

It is interesting to see that in the last two months we sold more wine to German distributers. Not as much as to other countries but Germans seem to drink wine at home 😊 Also more private clients reach out and try to buy wines directly from us. This means more money per bottle but also more logistic work.

Which brings me to the next big challenge: we usually work with volunteers during harvest and vegetation season. Now with Covid-19 they all stuck in their countries and we have to do the same work with less people. Apart from the fact that there is less work force it also feels a bit lonely without all the volunteers. It is so much fun to meet people from all over the world, learn new things from them (baking bread or building a rooftop garden) and get inspired.

What are you currently working on?
We just planted a new vineyard with an old Franconian Pinot called Fränkischer Burgunder (an old autochthonous grape variety) and a vineyard with white hybrids. We think this is the way to deal with climate change. In the last years we have noticed that it is getting more and more difficult to work with some grape varieties who are very sensitive and don’t deal well with extreme heat or dryness or too much rain. In order to increase biodiversity and break up the monoculture we planted 30 apple trees right into the vineyard. Hoping the trees will also provide some shade. We are planning to build a biotope with lots of dead wood and different vegetables/herbs for all kind of animals.

What are your predictions for the rest of the year?
To be honest – no idea where Covid-19 will take us. It was a tough start for us flying solo without Michael’s father’s business. But we are optimistic that we can do it because we trust in our wines. We maybe we have to change the way we sell our wines. But we are pretty good in adapting. When we started making wine it was by far more difficult than it is now.

NOW IN STOCK:

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Fledermaus Weiss 2018 - Muller Thurgau, Silvaner, Riesling
”The blockbuster vintage is now taken up a notch! Still with the same major blending partners this is a more zingy and way more serious wine, finally under cork. Crushed and pressed in a pneumatic press (no skin contact!) Malolactic fermentation and aging on the lees in steel (Silvaner, Riesling) and big oak (Müller-Thurgau) Bottled: March 2019.”

RED

Fledermaus Rot 2018 - Schwarzriesling / Pinot Meunier
”The 2018 harvest of the red “Fledermaus” was a joy. Healthy bunches. And super early. August 25th! The red Fledermaus is made of Schwarzriesling (a German word for Pinot Meunier) growing on shell limestone. Because of these beautiful grapes we finally felt confident going carbonic again (whole bunches with a layer of crushed berries on the top). And it worked out beautifully. After pressing the wine finished fermentation partly in a stainless steel tank, partly in an old oak barrel and rested on the full lees until it was bottled in July 2019.”

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