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Battenfeld-Spanier

Hans-Oliver Spanier was never supposed to be a winemaker. He came of age in the days when Rheinhessen was still seen as a mere hinterland and mostly suited to bulk wine production. And that was only in the early 1990s, not so long ago. Yet Spanier had a hunch, a historical awareness and an instinctive understanding of the potential of the cooler Zellertal sites that made him take over his parents’ estate. They had started winding down their business and wanted him to have a different career. He immediately converted the estate to organic methods in 1993 and began introducing biodynamic measures in the early 2000s, remaining certified organic. He had been part of the influential ‘Message in a Bottle’ grouping founded in 2001 and has since worked his way to the top of Rheinhessen’s and Germany’s winemakers. In 2003, he met Carolin Gillot of Weingut Kühling Gillot in Bodenheim, and in 2004, he started making the wines of both estates. In 2006, the couple married, and Spanier still makes all the wines together in a modern underground cellar in Hohen-Sülzen. Two thousand and twenty-two was Spanier’s 32nd vintage. The estate now comprises 45 hectares. The main sites are the Tertiary limestone-based Hohen-Sülzener Kirchenstück, Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg, Mölsheimer Zellerweg am Schwarzen Herrgott and the Zeller Kreuzberg, the latter across the regional border in the Pfalz. In the vineyard, Spanier does not really believe in shaded fruit, even in hot years, and de-leafing is thus the rule even before flowering, which, he notes, encourages millerandage and results in looser bunches. The fruit is thus exposed to sunlight as soon as it is set. He intends to acclimate the grapes to sunshine as early as possible to allow them to develop thick and resilient skins. The lessened leaf surface also reduces photosynthetic potential and puts a brake on ripening. Another measure is to spread straw between vine rows to shade the soil, retain moisture and reduce ground temperature – something the couple pioneered in the mid-2000s and has now been more widely adopted by neighbors here and on the Red Slope. Spanier calls his winemaking style “anti-authoritarian.” He says, “In the past, you thought you had to dominate nature. Today, we respect nature. Being able to be anti-authoritarian in the cellar demands work in the vineyard.” The wines are fermented spontaneously in large, used barrels of various sizes and stainless steel. Spanier and Gillot-Spanier credit the “amazing” yeast flora in their cellar with the fact that the wines ferment through to proper dryness, which means less than 3g/L of residual sweetness. Malolactic fermentation is generally avoided. The musts receive no sulfur dioxide at all. The first SO2 is given after fermentation, usually in January, when the cellar doors are ripped wide open so that cellar and the wines within cool down naturally. A small vignette on the back label of every wine proclaims, “No bullshit – just sulfites.” Spanier made his name with Riesling – in a style that favors limestone depth over fruit and that, via the exposure of the grape skins to sunlight, with age, almost channel an Alsace richness despite their relative austerity in youth. This is particularly evident in the late-release Riesling called C.O. Liquid Earth. They first produced this for their wedding as a “family reserve” from various old vine parcels in the limestone soils of Zellertal, but by now, it is their late-release wine marketed via the Place de Bordeaux. There has also been much investment in Pinot Noir – which only ages in used wood and is en route to ever more elegance.

From 2022 Rheinhessen & Nahe: Rain in the Nick of Time (Sep 2023) by Anne Krebiehl MW

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2022 Riesling Hohen-Sülzen

Color: White

2022 Riesling Hohen-Sülzen

2022 Riesling Hohen-Sülzener Kirchenstück Grosses Gewächs

2022 Riesling Mölsheim

2022 Riesling Mölsheimer Zellerweg Am Schwarzen Herrgott Grosses Gewächs

2022 Riesling Nieder-Flörsheimer Frauenberg Grosses Gewächs

2022 Riesling Zellertal

2022 Riesling Zeller Kreuzberg Grosses Gewächs

2022 Riesling CO XXII Liquid Earth

2018 Riesling CO XVIII Liquid Earth

2021 Spätburgunder Hohen-Sülzener Kirchenstück Grosses Gewächs

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