How we made it
The third generation of the white “Fledermaus” has been harvested in September 2017 and bottled in March 2018. It consists of about 70% Müller-Thurgau and 30% Silvaner. The whole Müller-Thurgau clusters were pressed, the juice sedimented, racked and aged on the full lees in stainless steel. The Silvaner grapes were destemmed, sitting on the skins for a night, pressed and fermented in big oak barrels (one old one new).
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 (70%), Silvaner (30%)
Soil: Shell limestone
Harvest: September 2017
Crushed and pressed in a pneumatic press (no skin contact!)
Malolactic fermentation and aging on the lees in steel (Müller-Thurgau) and big oak (Silvaner)
Bottled: March 2018
Bottles produced: 9,200
Alcohol: 11.5%
Acid: 4.4 g/l
VA: 0.5 g/l
Total SO2: 7 mg/l
Residual sugar: 0 g/l
Bottle size: 0.75 l