2012 Raumland Pinot Noir Grande Reserve (120 months) Brut

Entirely based on grapes from the Bürgel (on limestone brown clay or terra fusca soils) and fermented in 55% stainless steel and 45% barriques, the 2012 Pinot Noir Grande Réserve Brut opens with a clear, elegant, fresh and vinous bouquet of sweet cherries, lemon peel and green apples intertwined with iodine and fine brioche aromas. This is a full-bodied, complex, very intense, fresh, long and vivacious sparkling wine with great intensity and stimulating purity. This wine offers a lot of layers and flavors for 12% stated alcohol. It's still extremely youthful and doesn't show any hints of 12 years of age, but the very long and complex finish is still a bit caged in the oaky milieu it was raised in for 10 months. The tirage was in July 2013, and it was disgorged in February 2024 after 127 months sur lattes. Natural cork. Tasted in July 2024. "2012 was an outstanding sparkling wine vintage for us," says Volker Raumland. The beginning of the year was bitterly cold and very dry into April. The hoped-for precipitation then arrived at flowering, causing slight coulure and thus a natural reduction in yield. In summer, there was sufficient rainfall and perfect grape temperatures. The result was small, thick-skinned berries in perfect weather conditions for the harvest.