Hildt Elbling Sekt (Flaschengärung) (Biodynamic)

Notes from Importer Vom Boden: "You’ve probably never heard of the 'Upper Mosel.' I really hadn’t either. I mean, I knew it was there. I just didn’t know what was there. As it turns out, what is there has nothing to do with everything we’ve ever been taught about the Mosel. In other words, the Upper Mosel has nothing to do with Riesling and nothing to do with slate. Instead, we find limestone. The Upper Mosel in fact represents the beginning of the Paris Basin, the geological reality that informs places like Chablis and Sancerre. Instead of Riesling, in the Upper Mosel we find a winemaking culture based on one of Europe’s oldest grapes: Elbling. It’s important to understand that Elbling here feels like something of a religion. It’s a culture, a regional dialect that is spoken through this wine of rigorous purity, of joyous simplicity, of toothsome acidity. Elbling is the uncompromising vigor and energy, the raucous and super-chalky acidity. Matthias is single-handedly trying to save the old, terraced parcels of Elbling is a move that is equal parts romantic and completely insane. The financial realities of working these vineyards by hand while accepting their lower yields simply do not add up. This is an act of cultural preservation more than anything else. The few cases that I’m able to get of this wine are, to me at least, semi-sacred voices of a time long past. Sacred voices that end up on the $20-and-under table and most often overlooked."