WasenhausWeissburgunder Bellen 2023 (750ml)

The delicately named “Bellen” is sourced from a very steep vineyard with a dramatic western exposition. It is perhaps the most finely knit of all the Wasenhaus wines, thread-count unknown but very, very high. This, along with the Pinot of the same origin, was the first wine from Wasenhaus that just floored me. I can’t say I had had a Weissburgunder of such supreme elegance.

The Bellen grows on limestone clay soils in Kirchhofen and Pfaffenweiler. Due to the steepness, the site simply must be worked completely by hand; the Weissburgunder vines here are more than fifty years old. This was pressed whole-cluster and then fermented in used barrels of various sizes. Aged for one year on the full lees and then another half-year in stainless steel. Et voila.