Frank John Riesling 2021

Frank John Riesling Buntsandstein is a white wine made by Frank, Gerlinde, Dorothea and Sebastian Frank with Riesling from their vineyards in the Palatinate, Germany. It comes from vineyards planted with a type of soil of sedimentary origin typical of the Palatinate, where the Riesling has to penetrate deeply in search of sustenance, which improves the minerality of the wines. It is a wine that has a short maceration, with a long and soft pressing followed by a spontaneous fermentation in foudres of 1,200 and 2,400 liters. After fermentation, the wine spends a year in a fudre with the lees and another year after being bottled, before being put on the market. Frank John met his wife Gerlinde while studying at university, where she was studying agricultural biology and he was studying agricultural engineering with a focus on viticulture, soil study, plant nutrition and microbiology. Years later, they found a way to put their love of nature into practice in the Palatinate by making wine in a way that respects nature and the environment, and they moved there in 2003 with their children Dorothea and Sebastián to found the winery. Frank already knew the area because his grandmother owned the farm from which he supplied products to the restaurant where he worked as chef. At Frank John, they began working in biodynamics from the beginning with a vision, that of making traditional wines in an artisanal way, with full attention to detail, which includes soil in perfect microbiological condition and in balance with nature. For this purpose, they produce wines of great finesse, with an intense and tasty profile but with a mineral delicacy. For them, this means working in biodynamics (certified since 2012), being very rigorous with the selection and a lot of patience in the cellar, so that the wines find their maturity and balance without the pressure of getting them to market quickly. The winery is certified as Carbon Neutral since 2021. Proof of the draconian nature of their style was the disaster they faced in 2006 when a tropical night ruined all their year's work. When they were planning the harvest for the following morning the previous afternoon, they did not suspect that that night at the end of September the thermometer would reach 25ºC and that it would be followed by torrential rain that made the clusters fatten and burst, ruining a harvest that was expected to be fantastic. The Johns decided to sell the grape and not make wine that year. Quality ahead of everything. Helped by their children DOrothea and Sebastian, today part of the winery, they grow biodynamically, harvest by hand, let the wines ferment spontaneously (both alcoholic and malolactic), age the wines in foudres for longer than usual and they add a minimal amount of sulfur just before bottling, using quality corks and letting the wines rest in the bottle in the cellar before releasing them to the market.