Pinot Noir 2022, Oliver Zeter, Pfalz

Wonderfully juicy, tasty, berry and spicy. Seductively, the wine dances between a fine sweetness and an animating fruit acid. The cherries from the bouquet are back with the party and are accompanied by a very elegant barrique note.

Brothers Christian and Oliver Zeter bottled their first vintage in 2007 and have already earned themselves a place in the wine world. Today they cultivate six hectares of the best sites in Palatinate; some are their own vineyards, some of which they lease from growers with whom they have built and maintain long-term relationships.

The drinking bear that adorns the label comes from the quill of a well known Pfalz artist named Otto Dill, a friend of Oliver’s great grandfather Walter Baer (German for bear). On one occasion in 1933 Walter was unable to meet his friends for a regular ‘glass of wine or two’ and the artist sent the sketch on a postcard to his friend Walter the ‘bear’, and the postcard was signed by all the friends present that day. Oliver has the postcard in his kitchen. He declared that the bear had been with him all his life and when he made wine he would go on the label.

The vineyards for the Pinot Noir are scattered in the best areas of the Southern Palatinate, mostly around the villages of Siebeldingen, Godramstein and Nussdof. The soils consist of lime and loess, but also of sandstone with clay inlays.

After fermentation, depending on the year and the quality of the grapes, the wine is gently pressed using basket press, as this traditional method of pressing promotes the extraction of aromas, colour an fine-tannins from the grape skins. The red wine mash is never pumped using these operations, but only gently moved by gravity. The young wine s then aged for ten months n used French oak barriques and then bottled with filtration.