Skins & Stones 2019
£25.00
A Wine That
introduces you to the world of orange wine and all of the more savoury, earthy aromas that come with it — think dried chamomile and oats. Like a red wine, it benefits from some air - we recommend serving it decanted to explore its full potential, or drinking half on day one, and half on day two, if you can wait that long!
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- Delivery: Delivery and gift wrapping options available at checkout.
- Winemaker: Markus Altenburger
Austria
Burgenland
12.5%
Skins
75cl
12°C
Organic
Limestone
Schist
Neuburger
Chardonnay
Grüner Veltliner
Traminer
Sauvignon Blanc
Where and How?
This wine comes from vineyards in the Leithaberg DAC of Burgenland, planted on limestone and slate soils. It's a blend of organically farmed Sauvignon Blanc, Muskat Ottonel, Traminer, Neuburger, Grüner Veltliner and Welschriesling. Quite the mouthful! As it's an unfiltered skin-contact wine, this means there are more of the grape particles & yeasts present here, so its appearance is a little cloudy (just like cloudy apple juice, this contains all the good stuff!)
The Sauvignon Blanc & Muskat Ottonel were co-fermented on the skins for 10 days, then aged in old 228L barrels. Separately, the Traminer also fermented with 10 days' skin contact, also ageing in barrels, whereas the Neuburger had five days' skin contact and aged in concrete. The Grüner had four days' skin contact in a concrete egg and aged in 500L oak. The Welschriesling fermented on the skins for 14 days and aged in 500L oak. Unfined, unfiltered with just a touch of sulphites at bottling.
The Winemaker: Markus Altenburger
Every now and then you meet a winemaker who approaches wine from a completely different angle. These are the people who make you subconsciously cock your head to one side while getting lost in thought.
One of these people is Markus Altenburger. From the way he describes how a vine interacts with its environment in an easy, matter of fact manner, to his pragmatic thinking behind skin-contact white wine, Markus has a logical explanation for everything. It’s a logic you also find in the wine, but that’s not to say they’re simple ‘tick box’ wines.
Rather, these are rubix cube wines: you need to take some time to get to know them.