Silvaner L 2022

Wine description for Silvaner L 2022 by Carl-Friedrich L. Walther

Colour & appearance

In the glass copper-coloured and clear – the sheen of a wine that has had contact with skins and stems and makes no attempt to hide it.

Nose

A very discreetly aromatic orange Silvaner: herbs and soft pome fruit complete with skins and pips, alongside fennel seed, dried chamomile, orange peel, stone and a hint of nuts. No perfume here – rather a quiet, precise vocabulary.

Palate

Round and juicy on entry, with a fine texture that is anything but coarse. The tannins are perfectly calibrated, merging with juicy acidity and salinity – the more air it receives, the fresher and more demanding the wine becomes.

Finish

Dry, cool and with a saline pull that keeps the palate occupied for a long time; an aftertaste of skin, herb and stone rather than abundant fruit.

Terroir & origin

From the Thuringian single vineyard site Kaatschener Dachsberg, high above the Saale. The vines are rooted in weathered Muschelkalk limestone with loess clay components – barren, stony terrain in Germany’s northernmost quality wine region, where cold winters and long, cool autumns keep the acidity alert and rein in the alcohol at 10.0% vol.

Grape variety & vinification

Silvaner, selectively hand-harvested, 24 hours of maceration with stems, three days of pressing in a wooden basket press, twelve months on full lees in stainless steel, racked once before bottling, minimally sulphured, neither filtered nor fined. Carl-Friedrich L. Walther, trained on the Mosel and refined under Klaus Zimmerling in the Saxon school, farms the vineyard site with organic certification and ferments his musts spontaneously – low-tech as his signature style.

Food recommendations

A serious everyday wine for restraint on the plate: pan-fried fish, young goat’s cheese, asparagus or a bowl of miso soup.

Special characteristics

The copper colour and the fine tannin grip reveal the skin contact – a Silvaner that leans more towards Jura-like stillness than Franconian fruit. At 10.0% vol. almost ascetically slender, yet increasingly insistent with air: a wine that rewards time in the glass with precision.