Winemaker Notes
Unlike most purveyors of Sekt, Minges does all the work themselves; tirage, riddling, disgorging. The wine is really pure and racy—the connection to Champagne is tangible; indeed it smells like Avize – it’s streamlined and dry. The base wine is aged on the fine lees for a year before going en tirage. It’s then on the lees for three and a half years.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
This sunny and relatively dry region served for many years as a German tourist mecca and was associated with low cost, cheerful wines. But since the 1980s, it has gained a reputation as one of Germany’s more innovative regions, which has led to increased international demand.