Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon S
⏳ Drinking Window
Typically best enjoyed 5–12 years from vintage release
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
roasted lamb chops, beef tenderloin, aged hard cheeses
✨ Technical Specifications
Weingut Bernhart's Merlot Cabernet Sauvignon 'S' is a masterful expression of cool-climate Bordeaux varieties grown on the historic German-French border in the southern Pfalz. The 'S' designation denotes a premium selection, indicating low yields, selective hand-harvesting, and extensive aging in French oak barriques. The vines thrive on the complex Kalkmergel (limestone marl) soils of Schweigen, which impart a distinctive mineral tension and elegant structure to the ripe, dark fruit character of the blend. This cross-border terroir, where vineyards literally weave between Germany and Alsace, infuses the wine with a unique cultural and geological heritage, bridging German precision with classic French complexity.
🍾 About the Producer
Weingut Bernhart is situated in Schweigen-Rechtenbach along the southernmost fringe of the Pfalz, right at the French frontier near the historic Deutsches Weintor. While the family's agricultural roots date back centuries, estate bottling commenced under Willi and Wilma Bernhart in 1971, followed by their accession to the VDP in 2004 and formal organic certification in 2012. Today led by Gerd and Sabine Bernhart, the estate commands a singular cross-border terroir: approximately two-thirds of its roughly 20 hectares of vineyards are technically situated on French soil in Alsace, governed by special bilateral treaties that allow the wines to bear German designations. The viticultural backbone rests on dense, fossil-rich limestone, calcareous marl, and clay deposits across benchmark cru plots such as the Schweigener Sonnenberg. Winemaking emphasizes spontaneous fermentation, lees contact, and judicious wood aging, generating deeply structured, mineral-driven white and red expressions epitomized by their Kalkmergel and Grosses Gewächs bottlings.
🍇 Grapes
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon