Schweigen Tonmergel Auxerrois
⏳ Drinking Window
2022 - 2028
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
White asparagus with hollandaise, pan-seared freshwater trout, mild creamy cheeses
✨ Technical Specifications
Hailing from the historic borderlands of the southern Pfalz, Weingut Bernhart's Schweigen Tonmergel Auxerrois is a beautiful testament to a unique cross-border terroir. The Auxerrois grape, a rare and ancient relative of Pinot Blanc, finds an exceptional home in the clay-marl ('Tonmergel') soils of Schweigen. These heavy, limestone-rich soils impart a distinctive depth, structure, and mineral precision to the wine. Gerd Bernhart utilizes traditional, gentle cellar practices to preserve the grape's delicate orchard fruit aromas, subtle nutty undertones, and soft acidity. The result is a highly expressive white wine that captures the quiet elegance of the Pfalz-Alsace border, showcasing a harmonious balance of creamy texture and vibrant minerality.
🍾 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
Auxerrois
🍷 ABV
12.5-13%