Tobias Feiden

One grower has taken the market of elegant Spätburgunder by storm only recently: Tobias Feiden in Winningen. Tobias Feiden is the partner of Rebecca Materne (from the Weingut Materne & Schmitt). Besides his day job, he took on a parcel in the steep part of the Winninger Domgarten called Taubesberg which was planted with Spätburgunder. As Tobias explained: "My vineyard is situated high up the hill and faces south in a small side valley. This means that it does not get the full brunt of the sun from dawn to dusk, which suits Spätburgunder." He has added other vineyards since but remains a small operation (with only 0.4 ha).

As Tobias explains, his focus on Spätburgunder came somewhat by chance: “In 2014, Materne & Schmitt took on lease a package of vineyard from a grower in Lehmen. This package included a somewhat derelict parcel planted with Spätburgunder. It got me interested. 2014 was a difficult vintage and the project was anything but successful. But I caught the bug and was able to take on this far better parcel in the Winninger Domgarten in 2015.”

Tobias Feiden ferments his wine at the facilities of Materne & Schmitt. He relies on only partial de-stemming, little pumping, extended (18 months) aging in used barrique and unfiltered bottling. Not having any reserve wines, he had to compensate the loss of volume from evaporation by filling up the barrique with some glass marbles. This oddity gave him the idea for the name of his wine: Marbleous.

Whoever appreciates Spätburgunder on the elegant side, i.e. with presence but without undue oak, should have a very close look at this exciting new project. The word is out for importers and wine lovers to try to lay their hands on a few bottles!

Text: Mosel Fine Wines.