The Piwi Kollektiv
An integrated concept for organic viticulture
30 May 2024
Werner Elflein
Image: Piwi KollektivIf the state government has its way, the proportion of organically farmed land in Baden-Württemberg should increase to up to 40 per cent by 2030. This also applies to viticulture. However, many small family businesses in Baden are traditionally organised in cooperatives and only cultivate their mostly small vineyards as a sideline. Even with the best will in the world, they are unable to cope with the effort involved in converting their operations and obtaining organic certification.
Martin Schmidt, owner of the Kiefer and Schmidt wineries in Eichstetten, and Philipp Rottmann thought about this and founded the Piwi Kollektiv.
The collective pursues a holistic concept. Winegrowers are advised on restructuring their vineyards with the aim of increasing the proportion of fungus-resistant grape varieties (in Germany known as Piwis), in the vineyards. The aim is to save 80 per cent of the pesticides used in conventional viticulture in this way.
Because the winegrowers' cooperatives have so far only taken very limited quantities of grapes from fungus-resistant varieties, the Piwi Kollektiv is also stepping in here.
In addition to a non-alcoholic sparkling wine and a semi-sparkling wine, Schmidt and Rottmann have two crémants in their programme that are truly impressive. One is made from Cabernet Blanc, Johanniter and Souvignier Gris, while the other, a rosé, is made from Souvignier Gris, Prior and Regent.
In both cases, these are perfectly balanced crémants with a fine perlage and delicate, floral fruit flavours. This reflects the potential of high-quality, fungus-resistant grape varieties for sparkling wine production in a special way – and this is also the reason why the Piwi Kollektiv has (so far) focussed exclusively on the production of sparkling beverages.
The wines at a glance
Piwi Kollektiv
Bötzingerstraße 13
79356 Eichstetten
Germany
Phone: +49 176 24688686
Internet: www.piwi-kollektiv.de
E‑mail: philipp@piwi-kollektiv.de
“NOU” Crémant brut
Germany
Baden • Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (g. U.)
Amtliche Prüfungsnummer BWB 4653 200 23 • 12 % vol alcohol
“NOU” Rosé Crémant brut
Germany
Baden • Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung (g. U.)
12.5 % vol alcohol
⛬
“NOU Secco” Perlwein trocken
Germany
Lot number 4-2023 • 11.5 % vol alcohol
Symbols
| 🯅 | The rating of the wine is based on a single taster. The taster is named in the context of the rating. The tasting was either open or blind. In case of a blind tasting, it is explicitly labelled as such. |
| 🯅🯅 | The rating of the wine is based on two tasters. The tasters are named in the context of the rating. The tasting was carried out according to the four-eyes principle, in which both tasters agree on a joint rating. |
| 🯅🯅🯅 | The rating is based on a tasting by our jury and indicates the Mean value calculated by us from the individual ratings of the tasters. Our mean value is based on the median. |
| ⚖ | The wine was evaluated in a blind tasting. We have strict rules for blind tastings. The tasters do not receive any information that would allow them to identify the wines. The tasters are only given access to further information that goes beyond the subject matter if it is absolutely necessary for understanding the wines. |
| 🕓 | We only had limited time to taste the wine - typically during an open tasting event, such as a wine fair. It was therefore not possible to observe the development of the wine in the glass over a longer period of time. The informative value of our rating may therefore be limited under certain circumstances. |
| ⛬ | The wine was tasted as a barrel sample or before an official test number (Amtliche Prüfungsnummer or Staatliche Prüfnummer) was issued. We only accept samples of unfilled wines in exceptional cases, and then only if we can assume sufficient stability in the bottle for a period of at least three months. |
| ▲ | During our tasting, the wine showed conspicuous sensory characteristics. This does not necessarily have to be a wine fault. We categorise the quality and quantity of the abnormality and include it in the rating. Wine faults such as cork taint or an atypical ageing generally lead to a complete rejection. |
| Tastings that refer to the same bottle of a wine are visually summarised by a dotted line. |