Cuvée Marie-Luise Brut

Sekthaus Raumland was founded by Volker and Heide-Rose Raumland in 1990. Katharina and Marie-Luise (their two daughters) are now gently sliding into the family business, continuing with the same passion and love for high-quality German sparkling wine. Volker Raumland is often described as the “pioneer” / the
“Grandseigneur” / the “Sektpapst” (pope of Sekt) in Germany since he is the one who dared to start a new “quality revolution” in German Sparkling Wine.

Category: “Tradition”

Note : Raumland’s total Sekt range consists of 3 categories:
1. Tradition (between 4 and 6 years on lees, different cuvées)
2. Prestige (between 6 and 10 years on lees, mostly monovarietal)
3. Vintage (over 10 years on lees, only the most excellent vintages)

Grape variety: Pinot Noir, Blanc de Noirs
Vintage: 2013
Tirage: 26.06.2014
Disgorgement: April 2019 (all Sekt are always freshly disgorged before they leave the estate)
Time on lees: 57 months
Age of vines: 25 years
Alcohol: 12% Vol.
Sweetness: Brut (6 gr./Ltr.)
Acidity: 7,2 gr./Ltr.
Capacity: 750 ml
Vinification: Fermentation in barriques and stainless-steel tanks
Fermentation: Natural malolactic fermentation
Organic: Organic certified since 2002
Vineyard: „Dalsheimer Bürgel” + „Hohen Sülzer Kirchenstück“

“Dalsheimer Bürgel” is located in the region “Rheinhessen” and is spread over 84 hectare (208 acres) in total and is one of the most renowned vineyards of Flörsheim-Dalsheim (Rhineland-Palatinate) where many „Großes Gewächs“ (Grand Cru) originate from. The vineyard lies on a protected hill, being located
150-260m above sea level, the gradient is at 20 to 35% and has a southern and southeastern exposure.
„Hohen-Sülzer Kirchenstück“ is a vineyard location that contains light chalky soils, perfect for delicate, elegant Pinot Noir sparklings.

Terroirs / soil: The soils are very much like the soils in Burgundy, decomposed shell and algae limestone, alluvial soils with marl, also terra fusca. The vineyards are located on a similar degree of latitude as e.g. Reims (Champagne). Rheinhessen profits from varying microclimates across the region, resulting in above-average sunny days together with rather cold nights. This combination of microclimates and soil
types leads to healthy grapes with crisp acidity levels and Sekt with a mineral and expressive character.

Grape processing:

Since Sekthaus Raumland is purely focusing on the production of Sekt, the whole work is organized around and adjusted for the elaboration of the most delicate and finest sparkling wines. This involves the following:
• Very careful and manual harvest and hand selection in small 15 kg boxes to assure that none of the fruit is damaged. Grapes are picked at 75 to 80 Oechlse - the optimum must weight for sparkling wine
• Whole cluster pressing to preserve fruit aromas, no maceration, no mashing and no pumping of the juice
• Press fragmentation: for our Sekt we only use the “Cuvée” part of the grape – meaning the “heart” and best quality of the grape. It takes us 4 hours to run the whole cluster press program which involves the careful segmentation of the juice into “Cuvée” (roughly 50% of the most) and “Taille” (roughly 10-20%). To control phenolics the press is stopped after the last “Taille” run.
• The sparkling wines are stored in a four stories deep cellar to achieve optimum ripeness and “pin point” mousse. The sparklings are continuously monitored and tasted to assure optimum quality.
• The factor “time” plays a role of paramount importance for our sparklings. Since we only produce vintage sparklings, our “youngest” Sekt lies on lees for a minimum of 4 years. Our most prestigious Sekt even up to 12 years (without losing its  freshness and crisp character).

Winemaker Notes
Elegant Blanc de Noir Cuvée, traditionally named after the first daughter Marie-Luise. The grapes (mainly Pinot Noir) come from various vineyard plots in our vineyards in Rhenish Hesse and the Palatinate. Because Flörsheim-Dalsheim is located exactly on the border of these two wine-growing regions. This variety of soils and climate influences gives the cuvée a charming complexity and fine aromas. In terms of taste, Cuvée Marie-Luise is characterized by a delicate fruit, especially white peach and juicy marille. This sparkling wine is rounded off by a fine spice and a flattering fruit-sweet acidity game. Quite typical for this cuvée: it reminds in taste of red sour cherry.

Raumland is Germany's benchmark producer of traditional method sparkling wine, and this Pinot Noir bottling is a remarkable value compared with Champagne of similar quality.