Emil Bauer, Bullshit Grauburgunder 2020

Grapes are grown in a number of vineyards with calciferous / loam soils around Nußdorf in Pfalz. Fermentation is split between stainless steel tanks to maintain freshness and large old oak barrels to introduce texture into the wine.

This family business is on its fifth generation of winemakers, after brothers Alexander and Martin took over from their father Norbert in 2011. They set about on a radical journey to show German wines in a new and irreverent light. I don't know if the Germans have an equivalent idiom for 'tongue in cheek', but these wines are it!Alexander and Martin still make the same delicious wines as their father, from twenty-nine acres of vineyards in the southern Pfalz. Yet with a bit of a twist...As well as German staples like Riesling and Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris), the Bauer brothers manage to make a ripe, warming Merlot in this relatively warm southerly part of Germany. German Merlot this ripe and fulsome is so off-the-wall we couldn't resist! They also make a very sound Sauvignon Blanc that beat a big line-up of respectable Kiwis in an in-house trial. These chaps know what they're doing. The Bauer brothers have more than one eye on good marketing (their wines have featured at the German Grand Prix) and they've got awesome labels. Naturally the wine is awesome too.