2021 Philip Lardot Pinot G

WINEMAKER: Philip Lardot
REGION: Mosel, GER
VARIETAL: Pinot Gris
VITICULTURE: Organic

This Pinot Gris (or Grauburgunder) was sourced from a parcel in the south-facing, gray-slate Piesporter Falkenberg vineyard. You interject: “I don’t often think of ‘Pinot Gris’ and the Mosel!” Yes, tis true – this is a bit of a rarity, the parcel is roughly .15 of a hectare and it was only planted about six years ago. Things are changing, however, in the Mosel and a forward-thinking young winemaker like Lardot, with a wine like this… well, my gut is that these things will be a part of the story of the Mosel for the future.

This specific parcel is farmed by an old apprentice of Stein’s, though Philip is very involved in all the farming decisions. The grapes were de-stemmed, crushed and fermented on the skins for nine days. The cap was only gently turned a little, by hand, once a day. The idea is not to extract, so much as it is to softly infuse. There were no punchdowns or pumpovers. It was then pressed and aged for five months in barrel and one month in steel to settle. Before bottling, 20ppm total of S02 were added; bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Philip Lardot is a Finland born, Holland raised winemaker working the steep slopes of the Mosel valley in Germany. Ever since harvesting together at Clemens Busch in 2013, Philip and his Dutch girlfriend Zindzi have grow into their roles of becoming true Mosel winzers. After staging in the Loire and at multiple wineries in the Mosel he started creating his own wines since the 2016 vintage, later using the cellar at the renowned rebel Ulli Stein, for whom he is also the assistant winemaker.