As a 200-year old family winery in the southern part of Rheinhessen, called Wonnegau, they first switched to organic farming in 2010. After they converted everything to biodynamic, the son Daniel and his wife Bianka took over. At a workshop with French "vin nature" icon Julien Meyer they were infected with the natural wine virus and, in 2013, started making their own range of natural wine. With 16 hectares of vineyards, they are one of the more significant natural wine producers and have continuously made very drinkable and stable wines. With them, a whole new group of winemakers is making Rheinhessen an exciting wine region once again after being neglected for a long time.
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.