Gernot Heinrich naked white - Natural Wine from Burgenland
The Gernot Heinrich naked white 2023 is a natural wine made from white grape varieties, grown partly on the chalk and slate soils on the eastern slopes of the Leitha Mountains, on gravelly soils of the Parndorf Plain, and on humus-rich heath soils, i.e. on both sides of Lake Neusiedl in the Austrian Burgenland region.
The naked white from Weingut Heinrich shows the unadorned, unadulterated truth. How can wine taste when as little as possible intervention occurs during winemaking? On the nose, sourdough, wild flowers and herbs; on the palate, grassy freshness, floral hay, ripe orange fruit, juicy tannins. A great introduction for anyone who wants to try natural wine and for everyone who loves drinkable natural wines, as it is dense without being heavy and surprises with its enormous drinkability. For us, it pairs perfectly with fatty dishes like crispy roast chicken skin, duck, or goose, but also with grilled ribeye.
Since the wine is unfiltered, meaning cloudy, the bottle should be shaken before opening.
Heike Heinrich says about the wine: "While the naked white initially tiptoes on the nose, it steps on the palate with its whole foot. Its main protagonists, Pinot Blanc & Chardonnay, give it a creamy melt, while Welschriesling gladly removes any drinking resistance and throws a lemon zest into the glass, and of course a portion of Grüner Veltliner, which cannot be missing from this Austrian wine. Unadulterated, straightforward & precise. Its finely interwoven density without heaviness and its cheeky, unfiltered charm make it 750 milliliters that are drunk by four people in as many seconds.
Gernot Heinrich – Winemaking
The grapes, hand-picked from mid-September to early October 2023, come from various sites around Lake Neusiedl. Heike and Gernot Heinrich cultivate their vineyards organically-biologically or biodynamically, with much manual labor and care. After harvesting, the grapes remain on the skins with the stems overnight, then gently pressed and spontaneously fermented. The naked white underwent a natural malolactic fermentation, in which the more aggressive malic acid is converted into milder lactic acid. This brings typical notes and, above all, a pleasant creaminess to the wine, which was allowed to mature on its natural lees in large oak barrels for over a year before being bottled unfiltered and without added sulfur in late spring 2024.
naked white – a natural wine and its values
- Origin Wine from Austria
- 40% Chardonnay
- 48% Pinot Blanc
- 5% Welschriesling
- 7% Grüner Veltliner
- 12.0% Vol. Alcohol
- 6.6 g/l Acidity
- 1 g/l Residual Sugar
Organic Control Body BIO-AT-402 – Austrian Agriculture