Dear Wine lovers, the season’s work is almost done. Veraison is over and the vines only need to be netted to protect them from the birds. Last week I finished green harvest, rather cosmetic this year but rather never- theless an important operation because it provides me with a look at every single grape - literally. The poor set has resulted in an even crop of loose clusters with small berries, so far without a sign of botrytis. Quite a change of fortune after this year’s glacial spring! Back in May, there was no flowering in sight and I started asking myself whether we would harvest anything at all this year. At least it was a good choice not to plant any heirloom tomatoes this year, as it was a miserable tomato year… But since events have taken quite a turn for the better: the cold weather during flowering brought quite some millerandage, always a gauge of quality. Most of the summer was warm and dry, without much disease pressure. Now the vines are looking very healthy and have almost caught up the deficit in ripeness, lagging behind by about a week. Harvest should start at the beginning of October, rather late in the context of the recent vin- tages, promising a chance of a sane crop with high acid levels due to the cooler nights. 2013 marks a shift from the alterna- tion of cool and warm vintages, which has been on display since 2002. My preference goes to- wards the cooler vintages - keep your fingers crossed, it could become a good vintage after all! The word is out. As a re- action to last year’s unprece- dented run on the wines, which sold out in a matter of 3 days, I am forced to allo- cate this year’s offer even more tightly. Please un- derstand that orders of existing customers will be priviledged. It looks like the shortage is here to stay and the wines might even get rarer in the coming years. Exporters are knocking on my door and this year the wines will be exported to the United States, the UK, Norway and - hear, hear - even France. I don’t plan on increasing production - I am not in for the profit and the amount of work has to stay manageable and fun. My sole goal is to increase the quality of the wines. At least the young vines, planted seven years ago, are slowly gearing up to full capacity, which should increase overall production slightly. In particular, 2013 should yield the first decent harvest of the longed for Kapelle Pinot noir from new Burgundian bud- wood. The neighbour’s goats and the dryness of the climat are the main culprits that set back the raising of the vines. The few grapes that ripened last year promise an intensification of the extreme character of the Kapelle Pinot noir. In collaboration with Billy Wag- ner from Weinbar Rutz in Berlin, an experimental cuvée of 2011 Kanzel Pinot noir Rosé saw the light of day. Billy is one of Germany’s most renowned somms and he showcases his quest for ex- pression and purism with his own program of wines - the Rutz rebells. So far, I had only produced a little bit of rose as an easy summer drinker for private consumption. The in- tentionally large crop of the vintage 2011 (35 vs 25 hl/ha in a normal year) gave me enough material to play with this new facet of the Kanzel. Two thirds were made via saignée, i.e. a x cathedra - Neues von Kanzel & Co. E
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! !Dear Wine lovers,!the season’s work is almost done. Veraison is over and the vines only need to be netted to protect them from the birds. Last week I finished green harvest, rather cosmetic this year but rather never-theless an important operation because it provides me with a look at every single grape - literally. The poor set has resulted in an even crop of loose clusters with small berries, so far without a sign of botrytis. Quite a change of fortune after this year’s glacial spring! Back in May, there was no flowering in sight and I started asking myself whether we would harvest anything at all this year. At least it was a good choice not to plant any heirloom tomatoes this year, as it was a miserable tomato year… But since events have taken quite a turn for the better: the cold weather during flowering brought quite some millerandage, always a gauge of quality. Most of the summer was warm and dry, without much disease pressure. Now the vines are looking very healthy and have almost caught up the deficit in ripeness, lagging behind by about a week. Harvest should start at the beginning of October, rather late in the context of the recent vin-tages, promising a chance of a sane crop with high acid levels due to the cooler nights. 2013 marks a shift from the alterna-tion of cool and warm vintages, which has been on display since 2002. My preference goes to-wards the cooler vintages - keep your fingers crossed, it could become a good vintage after all! !The word is out. As a re-action to last year’s unprece-dented run on the wines, which sold out in a matter of 3 days, I am forced to allo-
cate this year’s offer even more tightly. Please un-derstand that orders of existing customers will be priviledged. It looks like the shortage is here to stay and the wines might even get rarer in the coming years. Exporters are knocking on my door and this year the wines will be exported to the United States, the UK, Norway and - hear, hear - even France. I don’t plan on increasing production - I am not in for the profit and the amount of work has to stay manageable and fun. My sole goal is to increase the quality of the wines. At least the young vines, planted seven years ago, are slowly gearing up to full capacity, which should increase overall production slightly. In particular, 2013 should yield the first decent harvest of the longed for Kapelle Pinot noir from new Burgundian bud-wood. The neighbour’s goats and the dryness of the climat are the main culprits that set back the raising of the vines. The few grapes that ripened last year promise an intensification of the extreme character of the Kapelle Pinot noir. !!!
In collaboration with Billy Wag-ner from Weinbar Rutz in Berlin, an experimental cuvée of 2011 Kanzel Pinot noir Rosé saw the light of day. Billy is one of Germany’s most renowned somms and he showcases his quest for ex-pression and purism with his own program of wines - the Rutz rebells. So far, I had only produced a little bit of rose as an easy summer drinker for private consumption. The in-tentionally large crop of the vintage 2011 (35 vs 25 hl/ha in a normal year) gave me
enough material to play with this new facet of the Kanzel. Two thirds were made via saignée, i.e. a
x cathedra - Neues von Kanzel & Co.E
bleeding of the cuvée after 12 hours on skins (which has the added benefit of increasing the pulp to skin ratio of the remaining soon to be red wine). The other third was cold-soaked for 4 days with daily punch downs, which yielded a very fruity, deep purple juice. The color was lost again during fermentation. The latter is approximately how wines were made in Burgundy in the 18th century, as vin vermeil or blush red wine from a coplantation of pinot noir with gamay and white grapes. At first, I was sceptical at Billy’s push to leave the wine on lees as long as possible, fearing it would lose freshness. In the end it was vinified just like the red pinot noir, with 18 months on the full lees without any addition of sulfur. This tamed the fruitiness of the pinot noir, allowing the underly-ing minerality to shine. Seeing how oxidation resis-tant the wine became just from nourishing itself on the lees was amazing and might become a model for future vintages of the Weissburgunder. The 2011 Rosé is exclusively available in Weinbar Rutz in Berlin, so off to Berlin! !Vintages in this offering !2012 - an unexpected dream vintage. Spring brought a lot of rain and disease pressure, but the poor set due to inclement weather during flower-ing lay the foundation for the quality of the vintage, yielding a bounty of small, loose clusters with tiny berries that amounted to almost a normal crop. August was full of sun and very dry, so that har-vest took place earlier than anticipated. We got hit by a bit of hail three weeks before harvest, which was a nuisance to sort through but didn’t cause much loss. The hail and the small berries made for very intense triaging, as in 2010 - on average, each picker clocked in 6-8 kg of raisins per hour. An early start of harvest from September, 19th on, allowed us to pick fully ripe, spotless grapes with an impeccable balance of sugar and acid. The memory of the harvest will remain with me for its April like weather with frequent drizzles and seri-ously cold fingers… !2012 marries freshness and stuffing, without quite reaching the concentration of 2010. I love the pre-cision in the wines and see the vintage a notch above 2010 for the pinots. The Weissburgunder has a racy acidity that puts it closer to a northern riesling - if you liked the 2011 for its opulent
creaminess, you might be in for a surprise. I am delighted at the minerality and concentration that the 2012 Kanzel Weissburgunder achieves at only 12.5% alcohol. We were able to bring in the Gewürztraminer yet again as Goldkapsel style Auslese with 122° Oechsle. With this vintage, I am switching back to cork also for this wine. !2011 - ripeness mastered. 2011 gave us a highly ripe, yet sane bumper crop. Spring was like an early spring and gave the vines a head start. This resulted in a perfect flowering, which together with the abundant rain of the summer resulted in big clusters. To draw out the ripening period, we went with a minimal green harvest. The pinots reached full maturity at 100° Oechsle, the Gewürz-traminer was harvested as Goldkapsel style Auslese with 122° Oechsle. Sometimes everything is easy and the 2011 have the sensuality to show for it. !In my last newsletter, I shared my rethinking of what optimal maturity means. My vineyard work is refocused on achieving freshness and precision, rather ripeness and concentration. The 2011 pinots are the first fruit of this rethinking. Inspite of the warm, lush vintage I managed to produce bal-anced pinots that marry freshness and concentra-tion with moderate alcohol (12.8%). The lower al-cohol is the result of an intentionally higher yield, an earlier harvest and the low alcohol yield of spontaneous fermentation, which varies from year to year. I deliberality included a higher percentage of whole clusters to balance the year’s oppulent fruit with a green, refreshing element. Neverthe-less, the warmth of the vintage unfolds In the fin-ish. The contrast to the opulent 2009 Oelberg, grown under similar condition, couldn’t be bigger - the 2011 delivers the same ripeness, but pack-aged in understatement and precision.
!2007. There are plenty of parallels between 2007 and 2009 and 2011. The 2007 vintage was very ripe with decent yields. (We’ve yet to harvest bet-ter heirloom tomatoes.) The spring began sensa-tionally, but the summer was rainy. The ripening period took place in a surprisingly cool, but sunny August, more typical for September. We harvested very ripe, healthy berries with thick skins and mouth-puckering acidity. !!
Steinberg. The Bollschweiler Steinberg is strongly influenced by the side-valley climate, the grapes here ripen almost one week later than on Old Oelberg. Steinberg has older geological layers. In the southern part is lime-stone with a mix of sandstone and iron oxide. The iron content is about 25 percent; hence during the Second World War ore was mined under the vines. The slow ripening gives the wines a pronounced northern character. The high iron content gives the tannins grip and provides a taut, muscular backbone. The Pinot is entirely plant-ed to Dijon clones (115). !Pope's wine Steinberg Pinot noir 2007 (0,75 l, Stelvin) 24 € Eye: Light burgundy robe with violet reflections that deepens upon airing or aging. Nose: Dark, noble Pinot fruit, berry compote, yellow stone fruits (mirabelle, greengage, peach), besides pine nuts, undergrowth and chalk notes. Palate: Fresh, satiny tannin. Lean, but with tension and vibrant acidity. Mind: Think red riesling - sleek, animating, transparent. Facts: 91° Oe. Alk. 11,3 %, RS <3 g/L, TA: 4.8 g/L. Yield: 1000 bottles (38 hl/ha). Map: bit.ly/STEINBERG !!Koepfle. In this site, our pinot grows on lime stone from the Bajocium era that carries a lot of iron in the clay. The top-soil is relatively deep with lots of withered down lime rock. The soil is so iron-rich that it glows red when wet. The deeper top-soil makes for robust and structured wines whose minerality is imprinted by the iron con-tent, with a noticable noble bitterness. The westerly wind blow parallel to the rows which dries off moisture quickly and leads to healthy grapes. As a very exposed site at the top of the mountain (hence the name which translates as head), the vines enjoy sun all day long and there’s a beautiful 270 degree panoramic view from the Black forest all the way to the Kaiserstuhl. Despite the southern exposition, the high altitude (up to 320 m above sea level) guarantees long and even ripening. This is also a prime spot for growing our heirloom tomatoes. !Koepfle Pinot noir 2011 (0,75 l, Cork) limited to 3 bottles per customer 24 € Eye: Deep burgundy robe with a violet tinge. Nose: Fine berry notes lead up to the typical Koepfle cocktail: tomatoe, peach snd smoke. Palate: Creamy and sweet, before the satiny tannin takes over with its irony tang. Mind: Packages the heat of the vintage in freshness, with Facts: Harvested on September 16th with 102° Oe. Alk. 12,8 %, RS: <2 g/L, TA: 4,3 g/L. Yield: 41 hl/ha). Map: bit.ly/KOEPFLE !!Kanzel. Kanzel (= pulpit) derives its name from a rocky ledge on top of a cliff overlooking the valley. The Stone Age caves at the foot of the cliff are called Devil’s Kitchen―that's how close heaven and hell are in this place… Given the wines, the biblical metaphor seems to be appropriate. Such growth conditions for Pinot are rare out-side of Burgundy. The grapes are planted on a southeast-facing slope (benefiting from the morning sun) that then drops down abruptly to the valley below (a cliff of 60 meters). The soil has less iron than in Steinberg or Koepfle and weathers brown. Due to the thermal updrafts from the valley below and the wind-shielding forest above, the microclimate can compete with the warmest sites of Kaiserstuhl, yet it cools down quickly at night, owing to its location on the valley edge and at a relatively high elevation (340 meters above sea level). This mi-croclimate and the arid, stony soils extend the ripening period. Needless to say that this is not a vineyard for abundant crops or high must weights. These conditions influence the wines and provide them with a special character, in all the wines, whether red or white, that you find again and again: a high sweet extract―Oelberg (“oil mountain”) was deliberately chosen by the older generations as the name―with a ripe acidity combined with iron and fresh tannins. !Kanzel Weißburgunder 2012 (0,75 l, Cork) limited to 3 bottles per customer 21 € Eye: Full yellow with green reflexes. ATTENTION: slightly limpid, as not fined and only lightly filtered. Nose: Still dominated by yeast, apple, lime and incense peak out. Palate: Juice and minerality end in bracing acidity. Mind: Closer to Riesling than Pinot, will need a few years to shed its mineral seriousness. Mind: Drink this wine as you would a pinot noir - from a big burgundy glass and rather warm. Facts: Harvested on 27.9 with 92° Oe. Alc. 12,5 %, RS <2 g/L, TA: 6,5 g/L. Yield: 280 bottles (42 hl/ha). Map: bit.ly/KANZEL !!
32 €/l
32 €/l
28 €/l
Kanzel Pinot noir rose Rutz Rebell 2011 exclusively at Rutz-Weinbar, Berlin Eye: Full rosé a la Tavel. Nose: Orange blossom, almond und pastry. Palate: Oil and satin, finishes with sweet pinot fruit. Mind: Compare this to Weissburgunder 2011 and discover what a fruity grape Pinot noir is. Facts: Harvested on 17.-24.9. with 100-102° Oe. Alk.: 13,5 %, RS: <2 g/l, TA: 4,4 g/l. 270 bottles. !Kanzel Pinot noir 2011 (0,75 l, Cork) limited to 3 bottles per customer 28 € Eye: Middle burgundy robe with a violet tinge, though not as dark as Koepfle. Nose: Complex and shape shifting - understated, yet full of hints and high-toned berry notes. Gaumen: Satiny, cool tannin ending on salty, licorice like minerality. Long, sweet and oily. Mind: Precision delivered with aristocratic attitude. Facts: Harvested on 17.-24.9. with ~101° Oe. Alc. 12,8 %, RS <2 g/L, TA: 4,2 g/L. Yield: 820 bottles. !!Kapelle. Although Kapelle is a mere 50 meters away from Koepfle, the vines grow in a different soil, a mix of marl and sandstone. The soil in this section of the “Old Oelberg” comes from the Tertiary Period, and—unlike the Jura soils—has almost no iron oxide. The soil is rocky, stony, and exceptionally well drained. A dry wind of-ten streams up from the valley, contributing to the site's aridness which keeps the vine's vigor in check even in lush vintages. In Kapelle, you can notice how a site influences vine physiognomy—stunted, even dwarfed growth and relatively small berries with thick skins. Traditionally, Gewürztraminer has always been planted in the very best sites of the region. In this steep south-facing slope, the heat-loving Gewürztraminer gets enough sun and warmth, but keeps its raciness intact thanks to the arid stony soils — a character missing in most other sites. This allows us to wait with the harvest until the grapes reach full overripeness. It's only then that Gewürz-traminer let's its full aromatic potential shine. Gewürztraminer is a noble, if misjudged, grape variety. !Kapelle Gewürztraminer Auslese 2012 (0,375 l, LongCap) 18 € Eye: Gold-yellow with green reflections. Nose: Floral, understated nose: blossoms, peach, very ripe pears, almonds. Palate: Creamy, juicy with white peach and white almond, ends vibrant and fresh on a peppery note. Mind: As every year, a complete wine with great vibrancy. Fakten: 122° Oe. Alc. 12 %, RS: 70 g/L, Säure: 3,7 g/L. 420 Flaschen (18 hl/ha). Map: bit.ly/KAPELLE-GT A few words about maturity. The 2001 and 2002 pinots are at their peak, as are the 2003s, though with more potential. The 2009 Oelberg is drinking very well, but still needs a lot of air. The screwcapped pinots age at a glacial speed: 2005s are closed down hard, while the 2006 Pinots are opening up. Kapelle is showing the best at the moment. Among the 2007s, the Steinberg is drinking best. The 2008s are starting to shut down and need to be coaxed by decanting. Kanzel Weissburgunder from 2001 is at its peak and 2007 is opening up. The 2009 Weissburgunder is drinking wonderfully, almost seamless. The Gewürztraminers profit enormously from a couple of years of bottle aging. Kapelle 2001 is perfect right now, but so is the 1999 Kapelle, which doesn’t show any fatigue. At the moment the 2009 Kapelle is at its youthful best. Please give the wines some air, time and attention—the whites blossom with a little warmth and are best enjoyed in a large glass (12 – 14°C). !!With best wishes from Freiburg, !!!!!!!!Our wines are fermented spontaneously with ambient yeasts, without pumping or fining. The wines are bottled by hand and a small deposit might result. Ex-cellar prices include the value-added tax of 19%; free delivery within Germany for shipments of 6 bottles or more. Subject to modifications. Freiburg, September 2013.
