Of Mountains and vines

Mölsheim in the Zellertal stands high on a massive limestone cliff that slopes southward into the sun. The winds blow cool through the valley and the mighty Donnersberg protects against the worst storms.

The vine needs a lot of strength to grow its roots through the narrow crevices in the limestone to reach water and nutrients. The difficult habitat makes for small but very concentrated yields, with an incredible elegance and incomparable expression. We, as winemakers, struggle with the same conditions needed to cultivate healthy, vital soils and plants. It is a tribute demanding work for man, machine and vine – but the result is second to none. Welcome to the best limestone terroir. Welcome to Full.minant.

The vines dig into the mountain with hard labor and reveal to us grapes with perfect expression of limestone. We also dug into the mountain for generations, first with pick and shovel, later with excavator and wheel loader to build our winery. Our cellars and warehouses are located on several levels, which were gradually dug into the southern slope. The wine cellars are surrounded by massive limestone up to nine meters high. Surrounded by the familiar rock, in perfect isolation and controlled temperature, our wines ferment in barrels and mature in bottles. Growing vines is mining for terroir, because the mountain shapes the vine and grape and thus ultimately the wine.

If the vine needs 10, 20, 30 years or more to dig the perfect grapes out of the rock, then the winemaker must also take his time in the cellar. The slow, spontaneous fermentation in wooden barrels is the first, small part to appreciate the work of the vine. The yeast continues to give vitality to the wine afterwards by remaining in contact with the wine in the barrel, encouraging and structuring it over the months. The transforming and evolving wine is lightly sulfured and separated from the yeast only just before it is bottled. Fining agents are not used. But even now the journey is not over. On the bottle, the wine is stored in a familiar environment, its own soil. In our cellar reaching into the limestone rock. Thus the circle of vine, man and mountain is completed.