Enderle & Moll Weissburgunder Muschelkalk 2022

Importer notes: From 60 year-old Weißburgunder vines planted on limestone near their parcel of old Pinot Noir vines. 4 days of maceration on the skins, then pressed and moved into a combo of neutral barrel and stainless steel with 25% of the skins. Matures on the lees (and skins!) for 10 months before a light filtration, blending and a small addition of sulfur at bottling.

winemakers: Florian Moll, Géraldine Moll, Manfred Enderle, Maxence Lecat
appellation: Baden (Ortenau)
village: Münchweier
main vineyards: Kirchhalden
summary: This estate is really just two guys, a tiny cellar, a few hectares of old vines and a hell of a lot of buzz – even Jancis Robinson has called them “cult.” What you can say with certainty is that Florian
Moll, along with his partner Géraldine, Manfred Enderle and Frenchman Maxence Lecat, fly in the face of just about every conventional estate in Baden. Farming some of the oldest vines in Baden the team crafts complex, earthy and superbly detailed Pinot Noirs that will completely redefine how you view German reds, to say nothing of their stunningly textural yet buoyant and defined skin-contact white wines. They are one of the first German red wine producers to emphasize lightness, transparency, finesse. They are the benchmark producer for natural, Burgundy-esque German Pinot Noir, period, end. The white wines, though a small part of their production, are revelations in skin-contact whites; transparent and energetic. Farming is organic/biodynamic, no additives, no filters, minimal sulfur.

size: Around 5.5 hectares with a small amount of purchased fruit. All fruit, both estate and purchased, is farmed organically.
key grape varieties: Pinot Noir is the main focus at Enderle & Moll, yet the two have shown a great touch with Grauburgunder, Weissburgunder, Müller-Thurgau and more.
soil: limestone (Muschelkalk), sandstone (Buntsandstein) and loess
vine age: 30 to 60+ years, depending on cuvee (see below, “red wines”)
vineyard work: Absolutely no use of insecticides/pesticides; demeter-approved spraying for fungus with minimal copper use (1/3 amount as allowed by organic certifications), minimal plowing, excess vegetation is trimmed, otherwise the soil is left alone. All vineyard work and harvesting is done by hand.
vinification: All wines are pressed in a small basket press. Maceration lasts 2-3 weeks for red wines and up to 2 weeks for white wines. For vintage 2020 there was 50-70% whole cluster fermentations for the reds. The white wines are destemmed and normally see some skin contact, 2-3 days for the basic ‘Müller’ and up to a week for the Grauburgunder and Weisßburgunder with further contact with a portion of skins for the full elevage. All fermentations are with natural yeasts – no yeasts, yeast nutrients or
enzymes are added, ever. Most wines are fermented in 300 to 1,500 liter tanks/barrels. The reds are fermented in one-year-old barrels from Burgundy. Enderle & Moll uses them for 2-5 years before retiring them. Minimal use of sulfur (25-40mg/l) at bottling only; all wines are bottled without fining or filtering.