Piri Naturel

Piri Wein has been run by Christine Pieroth’s family since 1781, in the Nahe region of Germany in Burg Layen. Christine decided to split off her line of wine under the Piri Naturel label, to show a distinction between the classic wines her family continues to make and her own line, focused on organic viticulture and natural methods in the cellar. Christine has been inspired by her own work in her vegetable gardens, and is becoming more and more interested in biodyanamic practices. Christine works only with wild yeast, never fines or filters, and adds either zero or very low amounts of sulfur. Her labels show local flora that she collected in or around her vineyard sites, handprinted on fabric, and that had digitized to make the labels. 

Riesling — Back to the top

“Cool climate Nahe Riesling: elegant, pure and mineral.”

Age of Vines: 40+ years

Soil: Sandy, pebbly and quartz-rich soil on south-facing slopes with ocean influence.

Vinification Method (2023): Grapes are hand-harvested and left to macerate with the skins for 1 day (no de-stemming) before being foot stomped and gently pressed into 1200l traditional Stückfässer barrels. Wine goes through native-yeast fermentation and ages 18 months on full lees (no battonage) in the same vessels.  Bottled unfined/unfiltered with nothing added.

Vinification Method (2021): Grapes were picked at the end of October at golden ripeness, with fermentation starting slowly and lasting a full year in big, traditional Stückfässer barrels. Wine aged in barrels on the full lees for 2 years, with no racking until bottling unfined/unfiltered with nothing added.   1.5g/l residual sugar. 

 

Ponderosa — Back to the top

Ponderosa is Christine’s affectionate name for where these grapes grow. The rows of vines are very close together. Christine wanted to name the wine this way to call attention to the special place the grapes come from, rather than highlighting the individual grape varieties in the wine. It sports a light red color due to the small amount of skin contact on the Pinot Gris combined with the red color from the Pinot Noir. 

Age of Vines: 25+ years

Soil: Devonian Slate

Varieties: mostly Pinot Gris with a pinch of Pinot Noir

Vinification Method: Grapes are hand-harvested, and left as whole bunches. The bunches are foot stomped and ferment semi-carbonically for about one week. The wine is then pressed into oak barrels to finish fermentation on the full lees.  The wine is not stirred and no batonnage is performed and it is bottled, unfined, unfiltered, and with zero addition of sulfur.

Personality: light and bright, very vibrant! Ethereal, graceful rosé with only around 11,5 % ABV.

Pet-nat Weiss — Back to the top

Age of Vines: 40+ years

Vineyard: Devonian slate soil, south-facing slopes

Varieties (2022): Scheurebe (90%), Müller (10%)

Vinification Method (2022): Grapes are hand-harvested and direct-pressed (no de-stemming) for spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel without temperature control. The wine is transferred to the bottle before fermentation is complete so it can finish as pet-nat. Not disgorged, unfined, unfiltered, zero SO2 added. Released after a total of 2 years of aging.

Personality: Christine puts it simply: “Aperó fun!”

Pet-nat Rosé — Back to the top

Age of Vines: 30+ years old

Soil: Devonian slate with loamy top layer

Varieties (2022): Dornfelder

Vinification Method (2022): Grapes are hand-harvested and direct pressed for spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel without temperature control. The wine is transferred to the bottle before fermentation is complete so it can finish as pet-nat rosé. Not disgorged, unfined, unfiltered, zero SO2 added.

Personality: Dornfelder red berry compote! Christine says it’s perfect on a hot summer day but in the cold season too, fitting well with Christmasy spices.

 

Pinot Noir — Back to the top

Vineyard: Blue Devonian slate with loamy top layer, south-facing slopes

Varieties: Pinot Noir

Vinification Method (2023): Grapes are hand-picked and left whole-cluster for ~4 weeks of carbonic maceration. After being gently pressed, the wine ages in used 225l oak barrels for two years. One racking out of the barrels and straight into the bottle, unfined/unfiltered with nothing added. The wine ages another 6 months in bottle before release.

Personality: “Mineral-driven Pinot Noir showing cool-climate fruit and elegance in Nahe valley.”

Riesling Gold Layen — Back to the top

Vineyard: Goldloch Grand Cru with gravelly bedrock from the Permian age

Varieties: Riesling

Winemaking: the grapes were picked late in the year, which means cold grapes = cold juice = quite slow fermentation (in used oak barrels). Nothing added, nothing taken away.

Personality – in Christine’s own words: 
“A full-bodied yet juicy Riesling showing the true character of this single vineyard site. Although coming from handcrafted high-quality grapes turned into artisan natural wine grown in a Grand Cru vineyard, the German wine law forbids us to put the site’s name Goldloch on the label, since the wine is not “typical enough”. So I call it Gold Layen now, which is a made-up name mixing Goldloch, our village name Burg Layen and the old German word Lay which translates to rock/cliff.”

Nava — Back to the top

Christine on this wine: “As you all know, the picking date is one of the most important decisions made by a Winzer*in. I try to find the right balance between fully ripe with abundant aromas (not overripe!) yet crisp acidity. 3 weeks before we started picking the 2020 grapes, I decided to do some trials and pick our Siegerrebe end of August already. Sugar levels were fairly low still, but Sieger is predestined to be eaten by deers and wild boars, wasps, bees… because all the other varieties are not sweet yet. But what’s so interesting about Siegerrebe: it ripens early and the grapes get fully aromatic without having high °Brix! That’s why Nava only has 8,5%vol alcohol while still being dry. I wanted to tickle the best out of these delicious grapes and try out how early we can pick.”

Nava is the old word for Nahe.

Grapes: Siegerrebe (literally “Victory grape”, a rare German cross related to Gewurztraminer which almost disappeared in the Nahe region; interestingly, you can find some plantings in Canada or Belgium)

Making of: hand-picked, foot-stomped, and whole-bunch fermented without any punch downs for 3 weeks, for gentle extraction. The grapes were then pressed and the wine aged in tanks until August. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, no SO2 added.

Personality: lovely orangy-rosé-ish color, bonedry and only 8,0 % ABV! “Honestly at the beginning, it tasted like literally biting into a whole cluster of grapes: some sweetness, some acidity, loud Sieger (Gewürz)-Aroma but also the green stems. But what happened throughout the aging now is crazy: the aroma is absolutely insane! So aromatic! It has some grip and length from gentle skin contact. The very pure taste of the aromatic grapes,” Christine describes.

Mathilda — Back to the top

A simple ‘Hi’ and I could tell
That her plainness was well seamless
And somewhere deep inside
She drove a common weightless determination, yeah

And to what lands her mind would travel
I don’t know but I was so curious
I had to keep on thinking of her floating through the clouds

I asked her whether she enjoyed being in the air
And airily she answered with an accent so careful I could feel each syllable
‘I love things that seem Impossible…”

Cat Empire: Panama

Grapes: Silvaner, Kerner, Riesling

Vineyard: rocky soils of the Burg Layer Rothenberg

Making of: The grapes are picked separately and then partly direct-pressed, partly after 1 night of maceration. Blended for spontaneous fermentation and aged partly in tank, partly in used oak, on full lees. Bottled in summer unfined, unfiltered, no SO2 added.

Personality: fruity, gentle and refreshing – the perfect easy-drinking white with 11% ABV only.

Weissburgunder — Back to the top

Grape: Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc)

Vineyard: slate soil, one part is 35+ years old, the other part 60+ years old.

Making of: the grapes are handpicked by going through the vineyards several times, selecting ripe grapes only. Footstomped, mostly whole bunch fermentation for about 2 weeks, gently pressed and finished fermentation in used oak barrels. The wine then sits on the full lees until next summer and is bottled unfiltered, unfined and without any SO2 added.

Personality: “light and refreshing. I especially like the length and gentle grip,” Christine says.

 

Aurora — Back to the top

Winemaker’s note: “Aurora is for me trusting fully my palate to choose the most delightful blend throughout varieties and vintages,” says Christine, adding, “Aurora is the feeling when surrounded by friends  — come as you are!” 

Grape: Blend of white varieties including Pinot Blanc, Müller, Kerner, and Riesling.

Vineyard: Organic (in process). A mix of plots from around the village that Christine wanted to showcase, including red and blue Schiefer (slate/schist), light and sandy Quarzite-Kieselstein, and heavier  red clay-loess based soils. 

Making of: the grapes are hand-picked, then partly macerated on the skins for 5 days, and partly a direct press of vintages ’22 and ’23. Partly aged in used barrels, partly in inox to keep it breezy and juicy. 

Personality: Sunflower yellow in color, with blooming orchard fruit, mirabelle, and apple on the nose, and clean acidity, very little tannins, and a juicy-fresh finish on the palate. 

Quince Pet-nat Riesling

Piri Naturel Quince Riesling Pet-Nat 2022 - Sparkling & Champagne | TheHouse

From Christine: “I wanted to make use of the old quince trees growing around our village. Quinces are very hard to process so nobody wants to use the fruit anymore. Pure quince is very intense, so I decided to make a blend and ferment together with Riesling to bring more vividness to the character.”

Fruit: Riesling co-fermented with quince fruit

Making of: Quinces are harvested around Christine’s village and co-fermented with Riesling in a combination of stainless steel tanks and acacia barrels.

Personality: A delicacy! Aromatic quince on the nose with Riesling freshness on the palate.

 

Pinot Blanc “1954”

“Our Grand Cru ‘Pinot Blanc 1954’ is made from our oldest vines planted in 1954, showing pure character from red slate soil.”

A note on the label: “My labels show botanical prints of herbs and wildflowers that I collect in the vineyards. Most labels are a monoprint, but for the Grand Cru Pinot Blanc I wanted to show a special technique: its an eco-dyeing with plants (dyeing with natural colour pigments from their leaves). This print is more abstract and suits this wine much better.”

Variety: Pinot Blanc

Vineyard: Burg Layer Schloßberg, 70+ year-old south-facing vines on red slate soil.

Making of (2022): Grapes are hand-harvested and left to macerate on skins for a few days without punch-downs. The wine is pressed and fermented in 500L barrels, then aged in the same vessels for 3 years on full lees before bottling unfined/unfiltered with nothing added.