How we made it
As (almost) all of the 2020 wines the Fledermaus also was facing the challenge of simply not a lot of grapes being out there to pick. Again, our friend Christian Deppisch from Theilheim helped us out. We supplemented our Müller-Thurgau that survived the frost with the same amount of his Müller got another two (also partly damaged) Silvaner from his biodynamically farmed vineyards to pick. Same bedrock soil: shell-limestone. The Müller-Thurgau was stomped, pressed and fermented & aged in stainless steel, the Silvaner was destemmed, crushed and pressed the next day before fermenting and aging in big oak.
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
Varieties: Müller-Thurgau (64%), Silvaner (36%)
Location: Theilheim, Repperndorf
Soil: Shell limestone
Harvest: September 2020
Müller-Thurgau stomped, pressed and fermented & aged in stainless steel
Silvaner destemmed, crushed and pressed the next day before fermenting and aging in big oak
Bottled: August 2021
Alcohol: 11%
Acid: 5.5 g/l
Total SO2 (nothing added): 8 mg/l
Residual sugar: 0.1 g/l
Bottle size: 0.75 l