Founded in 1833 by Friedrich Koch, the family estate is made up of 12 ha of vines planted on limestone, marl and loess. 80% of these lie on the classified slopes above Oppenheim and Dienheim, with the rest growing on the cooler sites below. In 2010, the winery was converted to organic farming in the hands of Heiner Maleton and Jutta Berkes. The vineyards yield high quality fruit and have always been relatively low intervention, but it was Heiner who began experimenting with small batches of unfiltered, unsulfured wines. When Agustin Novoa took up the baton in 2018 it was these he focused on, establishing the CK line which has become the winery’s most popular export. We first tasted samples of these early natural wines back in 2019, and were struck by an unsulfured Riesling made by Heiner in 2012 — a memorable bottle that retained a wonderful freshness, despite its age. This was the wine that inspired our Off Grid collab series: when we asked Agustin why something similar hadn’t been made in almost a decade, we were delighted by his openness to creating just that, a Riesling from the Gumben site in Oppenheim with a tiny bit of fizz and zero additives. Today, 70% of the production is natural, but the conventional wines are also wild fermented and have just small additions of SO2. The biggest difference is filtration, although the conventional red wines are also unfiltered. Ageing is done mostly in oak, with some acacia and stainless steel, and around 50,000 bottles are made a year with varieties including Riesling, Silvaner, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Müller Thurgau, Gewürztraminer, Scheurebe, Pinot Noir and St. Laurent.
Opp Nat was first made in 2018, Agustin’s first natural wine and one that has gained a loyal following over the years. For this 2024 vintage, the grapes are harvested from the cooler sites that produce grapes with higher acidity, better suited to sparkling wines. It was a great harvest, not too hot, and perfect for the fresh aromas and well-balanced acidity that set this wine apart. 50/50 of each variety, the Riesling was pressed in whole bunches and the Scheurebe destemmed and macerated to extract the aromas of the fruit. After a few weeks in stainless steel, the fermenting wines were blended and bottled in November, capturing the delicate bubbles before further ageing in the bottle. A delightfully refreshing, crisp pét-nat with bright acidity and low alcohol. Gooseberry on the nose, a whole array of citrus fruits on the tongue and a long finish. Drink chilled with fries and miso mayo.