Riesling Sekt Brut Nature Reserve 2013

Brut Nature means no dosage, no sugar to soften the edges. Whatever fruit, acidity and slate this sparkling wine brings, it stands unshielded. The years since the 2013 vintage have added breadth and a quiet depth without taking away its tautness. At 11.5% vol., it remains light-footed and bone dry.

Pünderich on the Moselle, where the Busch family has worked for seven generations. Clemens Busch farms 20 hectares of steep vineyards, eleven of them in the Marienburg. The slate there occurs in three colours: red, with a smoky spiciness; grey, with taut elegance; and blue, with mineral freshness. The oldest vines root up to eight metres deep into the rock, made possible by soil that has been free of herbicides since 1976.

Riesling supplies the acidity a sparkling wine of this style needs. In the cellar, most of the wines ferment spontaneously in centuries-old 1,000-litre casks, without cultured yeasts, without enzymes, without fining; sulphur use remains minimal. The estate has worked biodynamically since 1986. This sparkling wine receives no dosage.

On the nose: smoky slate, dried lemon peel, ripe yellow apple and brioche. The attack is taut and crystalline, the perlage fine, the texture silky. The acidity carries the wine without harshness into a long, salty-mineral finish.

As an aperitif or with oysters, shellfish and sashimi. Equally good with steamed river fish in lemon butter, creamy goat cheese or caviar.

A sparkling wine from biodynamically farmed Moselle slopes that forgoes dosage and shows its slate terroir unfiltered. The estate's wines feature on the wine lists of five three-star restaurants.