How we made it
With the 18 vintage we’re moving the Fledermaus to a new level. The major blending partners are still Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner. But for the cost of smaller quantities we achieved much more robustness, a cracking acidity and crunchy fruit from a splash of Riesling we added to the blend. “The Fledermaus has grown up” was a reaction we got several times. We agree. And to underline it we closed the bottle with a cork. No more screw caps.
The story
In 2014 we took over a vineyard situated in the town of Kitzingen where our winery is situated too. It used to be outside of town but over time houses and gardens grew around it, it’s a very unusual and unlikely place. Shortly after posting the first pictures of the vineyard we met a guy who dedicates a good part of his life to the bats of our area.
Together with local bat hero Christian Söder we developed the idea of a cycle: we get guano from local bat colonies – a wonderful fertilizer. In return we give a share of the revenue back to the bats via the Landesbund für Vogelschutz. And we put a bunch of bat boxes in the vineyard to offer opportunities for those lovely animals to hang out as they hunt at night – about 15 different species as Christian found out! The bat on the label is the grey long-eared bat which has become very rare in our area. It’s also incredibly cute and we want to help it stay around.
Fact sheet
Variety: Müller-Thurgau (45%), Silvaner (42%), Riesling (13%)
Soil: Shell limestone
Harvest: August / September 2018
Crushed and pressed in a pneumatic press (no skin contact!)
Malolactic fermentation and aging on the lees in steel (Silvaner, Riesling) and big oak (Müller-Thurgau)
Bottled: March 2019
Alcohol: 10.5%
Acid: 6.1 g/l
Total SO2 (nothing added): 5 mg/l
Residual sugar: 0 g/l
Bottle size: 0.75 l