Michael on this wine: “After two trickier vintages, 2018 was very satisfying. Fantastic grapes and a better quantity than the years before.”

Vineyard: a 40-yo vineyard in Volkach, on shell limestone, organically farmed.

Making of: the grapes were hand-harvested in September 2018, destemmed with 20% of the stems added back in the must. Fermentation took eight days. The wine went into two old barrels for malolactic fermentation and was racked and blended into a bigger barrel in summer 2019 before being bottled in March 2020. Unfined, unfiltered, zero addition of sulfur.

Personality: smooth, elegant, highly drinkable Pinot, thanks to its low ABV (10.5% only) and lush berry fruit with hints of Mediterranean spice.

Micheal Voelker and Melanie Drese spent many years working in other fields, traveling the world and living in Heidelberg, Regensburg, London, and New York. In 2013 they returned to begin taking over Michael’s father’s winery in Kitzingen in Bavarian Germany. Michael’s father is a long time winemaker, who in fact sits on the quality control board for the appellation, but has been very supportive of Michael’s desire to make wine without additives. They began to make natural wines under the 2naturkinder label as a side project for the winery, and since then have decided to fully expand the project to take over more of the winery’s production. Michael has a particular interest in bats in the vineyard, and a few of the labels are inspired by them. He obtains bat guano from a local nature conservancy, which he uses when fertilizer is required. He is also sponsoring a research project to fund the role of bats in the vineyard.