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The wine year 2003
The harvest for the 2003 vintage was completed at the beginning of November and its quality became clear; comparably only with 1976 and 1959. The sugar content was in almost all vineyards, including the Weissburgunder (pinot blanc) and Spätburgunder (pinot noir), above the level of an Auslese (selection). Our special highlights are however a Beerenauslese (berry selection) with 150° Oechsle and a Trockenbeerenauslese (dry berry selection) with 210° Oechsle from the site of Winninger Röttgen.
For us however a high Öchsle-number (sugar content) is not the only criterion for a Auslese. We are more concerned about location, mineral contents, ecology and culture within a singular terrace and culture landscape... the Terroir (site).
We stand, together with other quality-oriented winegrowers, for the Terroir-Idea as pioneers looking back on traditional wine making developed over centuries. Wine, like beer and Coca Cola, has already arrived in the modern industrial age with the slogan "taste can be manufactured". Procedures, which for a long time were frowned on, e.g. concentration of the pressed grapes to increase the Öchsle performance, reverse osmosis, vacuum evaporation, the use of enzymes and flavour yeasts or the use of roasted oak-wood splinters, which give us the taste from vanilla to Barrique, are now legal and often used in big business. Terroir however stands for clarity and transparency; Wines, which speak of their origin: of granite hills, of the shelly limestone, the ash of glowing volcanoes and the slate sediments of age-old seabeds. They stand for age old traditions of honestly produced wine. Terroir wines tell of heat, rain and dryness, of the climate and of human labour.
As a result of highlighting the origin and the Terroirs, we break with the old system for describing wines. Therefore we refrain from using the terms Spätlese and Auslese (late harvest and selection) with our dry and medium-dry wines and replace these by their unmistakable Terroir with the designations Apollo terraces, Uhlen and Röttgen. Only with our sweet wines terms Spätlese and Auslese (late harvest and selection) remain.
The Terroir concept is however a consciousness which across the world ever more winegrowers seize in order to save their cultural inheritance. It combines critical wine-drinkers and committed winegrowers, Gourmets and nature lovers
We wish you many pleasant hours when trying our wines!
Many greetings from the Terrassenmosel
Anke and Reiner Fries
Edited: 2004-10-04 15:39
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