Schweigen Kalkmergel Gewurztraminer
⏳ Drinking Window
2022 - 2028
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Spicy Thai curry, Munster cheese, roasted duck
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the historic border town of Schweigen, where vineyards seamlessly cross between Germany and France's Alsace region, Weingut Bernhart's Schweigen Kalkmergel Gewurztraminer is a beautiful testament to this shared heritage. The wine is defined by its terroir: the 'Kalkmergel' or limestone marl soils of the region. This ancient, mineral-rich soil imparts a striking structural precision and salty minerality to a grape variety that is otherwise known for its opulent, low-acid profile. Bernhart masterfully tames the natural exuberance of Gewurztraminer, fermenting and aging the wine to highlight both its classic aromatic intensity—filled with notes of wild rose, lychee, and cardamom—and a refined, dry, and deeply textured finish that reflects the cool-climate borderland breeze.
🍾 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
Gewürztraminer
🍷 ABV
12.5-13.5%