Martin ‘Marto’ Wörner makes wine in Flonheim, a small village in Germany’s largest wine growing region. Since he took over the family farm in 2017, Marto has been resolute in his commitment to producing wine with zero additives. Many of the vineyards were planted by Marto’s grandfather, who grew aromatic varieties in keeping with the trend of the 60s and 70s. The wine scandal of the 80s (when several Austrian wineries illegally added a toxic substance to their wines) had a big impact on Germany’s wine industry; amid depleted sales, Marto’s father started selling his grapes and began growing asparagus alongside raspberries, cherries and strawberries for fruit wine. With strawberry wine as the main business, the vineyards essentially skipped a generation, giving Marto a certain freedom and the ability to think outside the box when he took them over. Marto found his wine studies largely disheartening and was frequently told that little could be done with aromatic varieties. Fortunately, internships with Gut Oggau (Austria) and Tom Lubbe of Matassa (France) changed everything and were the beginning of an exciting new chapter. Big discussions around wine and biodynamic farming combined with the taste of the wines themselves (neither winery uses additives) gave Marto the inspiration to produce his own, focussing on healthy vineyards rather than popularised varieties — what he playfully refers to as Grand Cru farming.
Weiss ’22 is a blend of 7 grape varieties: Müller Thurgeau, Bacchus, Scheurebe, Huxel, Würzer, Faber and Riesling, harvested from different parcels throughout the village on a mixture of sand and limestone. The aromatic varieties were macerated and the remaining direct pressed, before ageing in oak barrels for one year. A fresh wine with good acidity. Drink chilled alongside freshly podded peas, asparagus and elderflower.