Bachtobel No3 Pinot Noir 2021

Bachtobel has been family owned since 1784, and has 6ha concentrated around the chateau the furthest away vine is 10 minutes by tractor. They are renowned for their Pinot Noir and obviously the Muller Thurgau and have a road, bus stop and Pinot Noir clone named after them. They are organic and invest a lot of time in biodiversity in the vineyards, as well as clonal selection and research. The number 3 is very special indeed, it has been pressed in a 500 year old oak press. The press still works perfectly until this day, but takes a huge amount of work to operate and prepare. When we visited in the summer we were blown away by it, we had never seen anything like it on all our trips before. The press takes up a whole large room, and the floor of the barn is trodden earth. Now any wine maker coming fresh from a wine making school having learnt all about winery hygiene would get nightmares just looking at it. But these guys know exactly what they are doing, they've been doing it for centuries. The resulting wine is full of character and lovely expressive fruit with a savoury edge typical of this part of Switzerland. 

Switzerland