Schweigen Kalkmergel Weissburgunder
⏳ Drinking Window
2022 - 2028
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Pan-seared white fish, roasted poultry, creamy mushroom pasta
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the unique cross-border vineyards of Schweigen, where the vines literally grow across the boundary line between Germany and France, this Weissburgunder is a profound expression of the region's prized Kalkmergel (limestone marl) soils. These ancient, fossil-rich soils impart a distinctive chalky minerality and structural tension to the Pinot Blanc grape. The Bernhart family meticulously crafts this wine using gentle pressing and slow fermentation, followed by aging on the fine lees in a combination of stainless steel and traditional large oak casks. This methodology preserves the vibrant, pristine orchard fruit characters while weaving in a delicate, creamy texture and subtle nutty complexity that reflects centuries of Alsatian-Pfalz winemaking heritage.
🍾 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
Weissburgunder
🍷 ABV
12.5-13.5%