Weingut Fries

Numbers & Facts

Our growing area is 6.2 hectares.

Awards

Ehrenpreis der Landwirtschaftskammer 1995
Staatsehrenpreis 1995
Staatsehrenpreis 1996
Staatsehrenpreis 1997
Staatsehrenpreis 2001
Staatsehrenpreis 2004

Staatsehrenpreis = honour of state award

Glossar

Barrique

The term used in bordeaux to specify the 225-liter (almost 60-gallon) oak barrels that are used for storing and aging wine. This type of post fermentation treatment influences the style and character of the wine. The storage in barrique barrels enriches the wine with additional tannin and modifies the maturation.
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Colour

The colour of the wine is created primarily through pigments, which exist in different concentrations in the skin of the grapes. They are especially distinctive in the red wine grape varieties. White wine varieties have hardly any pigments at all. The phenols are the ones, which determine the colour of the white wine.

The colour of a wine will give you information regarding the vine variety, maturation, quality and age of the wine. In white wine is an almost greenish tinge normally a sign for a young wine, compared to the blue-purple colour for a red wine. When aging, a brownish colour becomes more prevalent. White wines will get gold- to amber coloured, red wines will get brick red to brown-red with orange touches.
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Fermentation

The natural process that turns grape juice into wine, fermentation is actually a chain reaction of chemical responses. During this process, technically called the primary fermentation, the sugars in the grape juice are converted by the enzymes in yeasts into alcohol and carbon dioxide. General rule: to ensure a slow fermentation process more aroma and bouquet substances will remain. Otherwise lots of those important but volatile substances would disappear with the carbon dioxide and are lost for the wine. In our winery we manage the process by controlling the temperature during the fermentation and so ensure a sluggish fermentation and secure the whole host of important wine substances.
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Crushing grapes (mash/pulp)

Soaking solid substances in fluids.

Red and Rose wines are usually fermented with their skins, seeds, and pulp to extract colour and tannins

White wine does not need any colour extraction and no additional tannin.
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Phenols

Phenols: Group of chemical combinations around the element phenol.

Naturally occurring compounds present in grape skins and seeds and extracted from oak barrels. Phenolic compounds include tannins and pigments and are responsible for astringency, bitterness, colour, some flavours and odours, and antioxidant activity (which helps wines age). These compounds are present in all wine in small amounts, with red wines containing more because of the extended contact with skins and seeds and, in many cases, longer oak barrel aging.
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Tannin

Any group of astringent substances found in the seeds, skins, and stems of grapes, as well as in oak barrels, particularly new ones. Tannins are part of grouping technically called phenolic compounds. They are important in the production of good red wines because they provide flavour, structure, and texture and, because of their antioxidant traits, contribute to long and graceful aging. Tannins often give young wines a noticeable astringency, a quality that diminishes as the wine ages, mellows, and develops character. Wines with noticeable tannins are referred to as tannic. Tannins are detectable by a dry, sometimes puckery, sensation in the mouth and back of the throat.
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Wooden barrels

Wooden barrels belong undoubtedly to the history of winemaking. In the second and third century after Christ, wooden barrels replaced the wine containers made of clay and ceramic. Wooden barrels are, compared to clay and ceramic containers, easier to carry, more comfortable to manage and more stable during transportation. Additionally the winemakers discovered soon that wine stored in wooden barrels developed a finer taste.

Firstly chestnut, later mainly oak wood was used for making the barrels. The barrels were used for storage and transport. During the 17th century winemakers began to mature the wine in the barrels. This process between fermentation and bottling ensured the wine was clearer and the character of the wine was more distinctive. Why? Because the staves and the bunghole allows oxygen to get into the barrel, slowly, evenly and patiently oxygen will cause that the parts of the tannic are combined to giant molecules (this is called the polymerisation of the tannin), which presents the wine with a smooth, full-bodied taste. The colour of the wine is stabilised, because the wine is so aired slowly. Therefore red wines darken to a deep crimson red.

This process allows young wines to soften and absorb some of the wood's flavours and tannin the wine's flavours become concentrated because of slight evaporation. Particular the type of wood influences its very own mixture of aromas. This includes: traces of young, green wood, coconut, vanilla, roasted almonds and spices. Oak is the most favourite type of wood. It provides 50 to 60 milligrams of tannin per litre of wine. This doses influences the red wines lesser than the white wines, because of the natural contents of this kind of molecules in the grape itself. But it can change the taste of a white wine and gives it a spicy note.

The wood flavours should never dominate the wine. Its destination is to disappear in the background. The quality of the wood depends not only upon the soil it's growing in, also from the growth speed. This determines the chemical composition of the wood and the delicate of its fibre. Wood, which grows fast, contains lot of tannin, but is weak of aroma substances and structure. For slow growing wood the opposite applies.

What is missing is the finishing touches of the cooper, the barrel-maker. He roasts the wood before using, so that it becomes more bendable and to regulate the aromatic characteristic.
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