About the Producer
Current owner and winemaker Christian Dautel carries on a long tradition of winemaking dating back to 1510. The Dautel estate lies 20 kilometres to the north of Stuttgart in the Württemberg region, and extends over around 20 hectares of vineyards cultivated organically and planted on shell limestone and keuper soils. Christian, who has been head winemaker at the estate since he took over from his father Ernst in 2013, focuses on allowing the wines to finely express the nuances of his various vineyard sites. Ernst was inspired by his travels in Italy and France and wanted to realise the potential of his vineyards. Back in 1985, he began experimenting with maturing his top red wines in barriques to produce single-varietal Spätburgunder, or Pinot Noir, and sought permission to plant Chardonnay. This style was instrumental in shaping the style of the top Württemberg wines. Today, Christian uses very little new oak and eschews the use of barriques in favour of larger 300 litre hogsheads as well as much larger oak barrels. His two Grosses Gewächs Spätburgunder, or ‘Grand Cru’ Pinot Noir, namely Schupen and Forstberg, reveal subtly different characters. The Schupen is the more restrained of the two and the Forstberg the more powerful. The estate’s vines are planted at high densities, in order to create competition for the vines and limit yield – production of Forstberg GG is approximately 250 cases of 6 bottles, and Schupen GG is even lower, at around 220. They practice organic viticulture with significant efforts put towards biodiversity in the vineyard. All grapes are hand harvested and meticulously hand selected on the sorting table, adhering to their goals of producing top-quality, elegant and complex wines with great ageing potential.
