Schlipf Schneider 'Kapf' Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir) 2021

Weingut am Schlipf-Schneider ‘Kapf’ Spatburgunder is a superb terroir driven wine that displays fantastic purity and elegance, pepper spice and hedonistic dark red fruit flavours. At 350 meters, the Kapf vineyard is Schneider’s highest Pinot Noir vineyard. The grapes are French clones and are fermented as whole bunches for between 14 and 18 days in open vats. They are then pressed in a basket press before being aged in oak for 12 months and then a further 6 months in stainless steel before bottling.

Weingut Schlipf Schneider is made up of 15-hectares of vineyards spread over 70 plots on the Tullinger Berg mountain, just northeast of Basel, in the very southwest of Germany. The winery has been family owned since 1892 and is now in the capable hands of Johannes and Christoph Schneider, who took over from their parents, Claus and Susanne, in 2017. Johannes trained at Rossignol Trapet in Burgundy which has given him an invaluable insight into making superb Pinot Noir, or Spatburgunder as it is known here. In the past few years Johannes has moved to a more Burgundian model of bottling several different plots and vineyards separately, with the aim of expressing the different terroirs in the vineyards. The vineyards, which are now all farmed organically and with meticulous attention to detail, sit in a unique and wonderful location in the border triangle of France, Switzerland and Germany where they benefit from the warm Mediterranean air which flows up through the surrounding mountain ranges. It is a unique microclimate where Pinot Noir and the local Chasselas grapes thrive and produce amazing wines that are characteristic of their varieties but unique in their terroir. To be honest, we can’t keep up with all the wines they produce, which includes sparkling, Chasselas, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. We should always have a good selection from them available at any one time.