It's a super light bang! But it's the best kind of summer red. Made in a Beaujolais style with parts of the berries left whole and then done with a carbonic maceration. After the harvest of the Pineau d'Aunis, a grape similar to Pinot Noir, it macerates for a short 4 days. Most of the fermentation happens in stainless steel, while a small direct press part goes into concrete vats. To make things more complicated, the Cabernet Franc is macerated traditionally for 2 weeks and then ferments in used barrels. It is bottled very early in February already to make a statement about freshness. Starting off with cherry and unripe peach aromas, it leaves traces of peppery spice in your nose. In the mouth, the fun continues and is enriched by raspberry and red currant. This is peak summer picnic wine, so everything goes. The French would probably enjoy charcuterie and cheese with it.

This is technically not a Pet Nat. You won't taste the difference, though. After a couple of complicated unpredictable outcomes, they are now using a different process. After a short maceration for a couple of hours, the juice went into big barrels to ferment for five months. And here it differs now from Pet Nat, as you don't want the wine to fully ferment, but bottle it halfway through to continue in the bottle and create the bubble. But the Schmitt's are using saved grape juice from the same harvest to get the second fermentation in the bottle started. This way, it gets better bubbles, and it's easier to disgorge. This is a common practice for natural frizzante in Italy. The result is definitely outstanding, with lots of white peach candy and honeydew mixed with subtle yeasty notes in the nose. Tasting it will continue with some of those same fruity aromas but combined with a few zesty things and rhubarb. This will be good with dessert as a nightcap or with some creamy white pasta with its slight sweetness.

I love Grüner Veltliner, and this is no exception. The grapes come from the sunny hills of the Bisamberg that still belong to the city of Vienna. After the harvest, the crushed grapes went directly into a stainless steel tank to macerate with the skins for four months. As this is relatively long, you can call this wine “officially” an orange wine. After the fermentation, it was separated from the skins and left to age for another six weeks. Without any fining or filtration, it went into the bottle and kicks of a firework of aromas. A little bit of tea mixed with bergamot and a spicy herbal structure to round this out. Tastewise the bergamot is joined by orange marmalade with a nutty proper grip to guide you the way. This is a food wine with its light tannins and solid acidity and is very good with Asian food, for instance, a medium-hot curry.