Claus Schneider Spatburgunder Trocken CS 2013
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
As one climbs the quality tree at Schneider, one does not get more power or weight but rather an ever- increasing degree of filigree and concentration. This is the sleekest, purest and most finely balanced of the bunch. The top wine in a top vintage, it would hold its own against vastly more expensive wines from Burgundy or the New World. It proves that very often the best value is not to be found with the cheapest wines but, paradoxically, with the most expensive.
Since 1425, the Schneider family has been based in Weil am Rhein, on the border with Basel and Alsace, and has been closely associated with viticulture ever since. Even before 1881, the wines were marketed themselves and, as usual at the time, delivered in wooden barrels. The purchase of the manor house in 1892 in Alt-Weil laid the foundation for today's winery.
The company has been managed since 1982 by Claus Schneider and Susanne Hagin-Schneider. The sons Johannes and Christoph Schneider have been involved since 2015 and continue the tradition-rich estate.
From the Burgundersorten and the Gutedel only dry and durable wines are produced. The red wine is prepared by traditional mash fermentation. The wines remain for a long time on the fine yeast in the barrel. In the vineyard wines wines are produced with a high ripening potential.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
