Three Bottles Sekthandwerk Hotz
This week we're drinking three Sekt from the Markgräflerland in Baden. From Hotz Sekthandwerk we taste a Blanc de Noirs Brut 2022, a Chardonnay Brut 2023 and an Auggener Letten Steingrube 2022.
Sparkling wine gets short shrift here on the blog. And yet we really can’t be accused of having any part in some sales slump for sparkling wine, because if there’s one style of wine that isn’t neglected in this household, it’s sparkling wine. But maybe that’s exactly the problem. Sparkling wine doesn’t survive the evening, and I simply enjoy writing here about the development a wine goes through. Today we solve this problem with more volume. If a single bottle won’t survive the evening, then it helps to crank up the number of bottles. That’s also the reason there’s only one cork lying in the photo. Because three bottles in one evening, well, that would be crazy.
I still remember that Sekthandwerk Hotz crossed my path somewhere on Insta. But I honestly have no idea anymore whose feed it was. I hadn’t seen the bottles before and didn’t see them again afterwards, but somehow the encounter set my buying finger twitching. Auggen-Zizingen, in Baden’s Markgräflerland in the far southwest of the republic, really isn’t known as a sparkling wine stronghold either. After studying in Geisenheim, Simon Hotz bought his first own vineyard in 2014 and set out from the very beginning to make Sekt. The grapes for all the Sekt are hand-harvested and whole-cluster pressed, then aged in steel or glass demijohns before going through their second fermentation in the bottle. A portion of the grape must is frozen and added in place of sugar as yeast nourishment at bottling. The wines are then riddled by hand and likewise disgorged by hand. With all that handwork, the adventurous back labels fit right in. It feels like more of it is corrected with a ballpoint pen and cobbled together than actually printed. I rather like that.
We’re tasting three bottles. The Blanc de Noirs Brut 2022 is vinified entirely from Pinot. The Chardonnay 2023 grows on vines over 70 years old. And the last bottle grows in the Auggener Letten as a single-vineyard bottling. Ten rows in which Spätburgunder and Weissburgunder stand together and are harvested in two passes.
At first the Blanc de Noir is a little demanding. Very dark, rather berryish and somehow savory on the nose. There’s wood and spice and everything comes across as pretty dark. On the palate briefly like grape must, more in the feel than in the flavor, and then juicy. Really juicy. Somewhere between oranges and limes, and you just don’t want to stop drinking. With the Sekt in your mouth the aroma turns more towards brioche, more yeast and a touch riper. It’s long, but you don’t really get much out of that length, because the acidity drives you to the next sip. That’s a lot of fun.
The Chardonnay is the palest, the most linear Sekt in this lineup. Cool, lactic with a bit of yellow fruit and a touch of brioche. On the nose, at least. On the palate a surprising amount of structure arrives on the tongue. There’s spice and the most fizz of the three Sekt. It really foams up as you drink it. The lactic note resurfaces on the tongue too, there’s citrus fruit and exactly that structure, that spice. A few berries, a few peaches and a touch of the exotic. The fruit is never assertive, though, always behind the structure, behind the clarity. This is perhaps the most classic Sekt of the three.
The Auggener Letten Steingrube is also very clear on the nose. Sitting somewhere between creaminess and yogurt-like lactic notes, with a hint of citrus and a few herbs. It drinks just as juicy as the Blanc de Noirs. It tugs at the tongue, at the cheek, and then your mouth starts to water. It’s fruitier on the palate than on the nose. And yet the fruit itself isn’t all that easy to pin down. There’s orchard-meadow fruit, maybe a bit of stone fruit too. Next to the Blanc de Noirs, the extra impression of fruitiness may also simply come down to the fact that this one doesn’t come across as quite so dark. For the 19 euros being asked here, that’s really, really good. It just doesn’t stop tugging at the cheeks. How nice that the buying finger twitched.