We might still be missing a few years of experience,” says Tobias Knewitz from the Knewitz winery. “Then we might not be able to keep up with the absolute top brands, but we can keep up with the vast majority of champagnes.” Climbing up into the champions league of sparkling wines, so to speak, because the two of them have been producing with the same care and love that Tobias and his brother Björn give to their wines a few years ago, a fruity Riesling Brut and a Chardonnay Brut Nature, whose bone-dry, mineral-spicy aroma can actually hold its own alongside many a champagne.
Her neighbor Christian Runkel from the Bischel winery, who also produces a fruity Riesling Brut, takes a similar view and wants to emphasize the local terroir: “Riesling sparkling wine is all about freshness, fruit and liveliness, about the peach-apricot aroma typical of Riesling – but the perlage and taste are certainly no less fine.”
The two winegrowers from Appenheim in Rhenish Hesse are exemplary for a growing group of – often young – winegrowers between Kaiserstuhl and Markgräferland in the south and Ahr and Mosel in the north, who, in addition to their regionally typical wines, also score points with sparkling wines produced according to the Méthode Champenoise. The times when Faber Halbtrocken and Little Red Riding Hood gave you a big head at flat share parties are long gone. At prices between 10 and 20 euros per bottle you can explore the entire aromatic spectrum.
Without having even a rudimentary overview of the sprawling sparkling wine production, we recommend, from our own and self-financed drinking experience, in addition to the three Appen heimern, the 2018 Blanc de Noirs Brut Tradition from the Weinhaus Griesel in Bensheim, which was named sparkling wine of the year 2021 in its category, the 2018 Endinger Engelsberg Pinot Rosé Brut from the Knab winery in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl and the Pinot Chardonnay Doktorgarten Extra Brut from the Freiburg state winery – all for well under 20 euros in some cases.
Although the term “Winzersekt” came into fashion as a sign of quality at the time, the best grapes were not always used
At the beginning of this development was Volker Raumland, who raised German sparkling wine production to another level and today commands Germany’s most prestigious sparkling wine house. In 1981, he remembers, while studying at the “Wein Uni” in Geisenheim, he made his first sparkling wine from 100 liters of wine – it was basically clear to him that he didn’t want anything else. In 1984, at the same time as the boom in the so-called premium brands such as Henkell and Mumm, which were becoming chic at the time, he founded his own company and revolutionized German sparkling wine production.
Although the term “Winzersekt” came into fashion as a sign of quality at the time, the best grapes were not always used. Raumland, on the other hand, focused on quality, experimented until he found the right locations, the right grapes and production methods, and has been relatively unchallenged at the top of German sparkling wine producers since the beginning of the millennium.
His cuvées, named after his daughters Marie-Luise and Katharina, became classics. He was soon regarded as a mentor for up-and-coming young winegrowers. “Volker Raumland taught me a tremendous amount, you can learn a lot from him, especially how to avoid mistakes,” says Jens Windisch from the Werther Windisch winery in Mommenheim. “To make a good champagne you need imagination. The wine tastes terrible at first, has little alcohol but high acidity – you have to assess that so that something drinkable comes out after four or five years of fermentation.”
Since Windisch’s love is for the Silvaner grape, it was almost inevitable that he would break new ground. Although sparkling wines are rarely made from the Silvaner grape outside of Franconia, he presses a dosage-zero sparkling wine from his favorite grape with no added sugar, which is unparalleled on the German sparkling wine map with a wonderfully dry, full-bodied aroma that smells of brioche.