Fio

People |

Partnership between Philipp Kettern of Lothar Kettern and Dirk (father), Daniel (son) & Marco (son) Niepoort

Focus |

New winery, with an old-fashioned ethos of wines made with time.

Country |

Germany

Region |

Mosel

Village |

Piesport

 

Climate |

Cool Continental

 

• Defined as very cold winters, hot, short, fairly rainy summers, with long, cool, dry autumns.
• Until climate change this was the very northern edge of where grapes could ripen fully, but only about 7 out of 10 years.
• Now: winters are usually not as cold, summers are much hotter, drought is a serious problem 4 or the last 5 years, and autumns start later and are often much wetter than they used to be.
• The unpredictability is what makes Mosel wines especially vintage sensitive and creates havoc (and high costs!) for winemakers.
• Cool climate wines are high in acid, low in alcohol, light in body, and often show a lot of mineral flavors rather than fruit.
• Usually white wines are made, but some light reds, like Pinot Noir can also ripen enough.
• Warmer vintages: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2015 produce wines with lower acidity, higher alcohols, and richer fruit flavors.
• Cooler vintages: 2021, 2013, 2010, 2008 produce what are now considered “classic” cool-climate wines
• 2022 is an enigma. It was hot and very dry for most of the growing season, but rain and long cold fall ended up giving us wines that taste more like “classic” cool-climate wines than rich, ripe wines.

Vineyards |

A collection of vineyards in Piesport and Liewen (where Carl Loewen is based) of old vines, single stake trellising, from steep sites.

• Piesporter Goldtropfchen: Philipp Kettern’s slice of home. One of the most famous sites in the Mosel along with Bernkastler Doktor and Wehlener Sonnenhur. This perfect, mainly southern exposition amphitheater sucks in the day's heat, for intensely concentrated wines. The majority hillside was replanted in the 90’s but a few choice parcels were kept and Adam has a 700 sqm plot, planted in 1908, ungrafted, of course. Weathered Blue slate, clay, sandstone, these are dark fruited wines that still matter to show a regal, liquid gold like of opulence, balanced with a purity hard to achieve anywhere but the very best vineyards. Even in these warmer vintages Goldtrophchen is proof that terroir trumps all. 

(Goldtropfchen from the middle of Piesport and Philipp’s balcony)

Grape Varieties |

• Riesling: 

• The King of White Grapes. 
• High acid, semi aromatic
• A huge variation in style potential from very light and dry, sparkling to the most unctuously sweet wines on the planet. 
• Divisive for its high acidity and sugar retaining capabilities
• Perfect in its dynamic nature, ability to transmit the slightest nuance of terroir and being capable of aging for hundreds of years. 

• Pinot Noir: ​​
• German Pinot Noir wines are vinified as dry red wines with complex cherry aroma with subtle hints of smoke and almond, slight tannins, and high acidity, with a long finish.
• Had a poor reputation thanks to high yielding, work-horse, clonal material.
• Now Burgundy clones dominate vineyards for the best producers showcasing this incredible variety's true potential.

Farming |

Practicing Organic

• No herbicides
• No chemical fertilizers
• No pesticides
• Sheep graze the vineyards for weed control
• All vines are staked in the traditional, single stake method

Cellar Work |

Time, Natural, low intervention

• They take all the time in the world, needed, for the wines to hit their true potential
• Almost everything is aged 1-3 years, sometimes more
• In old neutral barrels
• On the lees for reduction and stability
• Most are not filtered
• Very low amounts of sulfur, sometimes none is needed
• New cellar, old methods

About the winery |

Dirk Niepoort is one of Portugal’s most esteemed winemakers, historians and philosophers. His family is one of the few of Portuguese descent to actually make Port in the Duoro valley, and since the early 1800’s, and was one of the first to start on still red wines as well. He also now has exciting projects in Bairada and Dão, arguably the two most exciting regions in the country for cool climate winemaking.

He’s now known all over the world for his partnerships with winemakers in other regions as well as Austria, Spain (Telmo Rodriguez and Raul Perez), and South Africa. As well as the open partnership wines under the “Nat Cool” labels. They are sulfur free, natural wines, that can be from anyone who wants to follow the hands-off traditional ethos. 

The story of Fio actually starts Dirk’s friendship with the Mosel-master Wilhem Haag, who taught him that wines didn’t need to be rich and powerful to be good. Since then, he’d been on the lookout for the right partnership to try and make wines in the Mosel valley.

Philipp Kettern, is the head of his family winery, Lothar Kettern in Piesport. They’d been farming here for 200 years, and his father had been making wine for decades. In 2009 Philipp took over the estate, which was run very conventionally at the time. Many low-lying, flat sites, a mix of grapes, with the normal conventional agriculture and highly technical winemaking.

As luck would have it, Dirk met Philipp Kettern over a week of wine dinners and classes with collectors in the Virgin Islands. They bonded over their love of Riesling, great wine and the Mosel Valley. But then Dirk, not one to beat around the bush, told Philipp he didn’t want any more of his Lothar Kettern wines, they just weren’t what he wanted out of Mosel Riesling.

Philipps was flabbergasted, but instead of being offended, he took the criticism, and committed to making the changes he knew his winery needed. He wanted to make the types of wines he and Dirk bonded over, but he also knew he couldn’t change his family’s established brand in a day.*

So the two started their own collaboration, along with Dirk’s son’s Marco and Daniel. Fio means thread in Portuguese and there is now a string tying them all together. 

One of their main inspirations was a quote from a very old Riesling wine making manual they found which stated that the best Mosel Rieslings needed 20-30 years in the barrel. It was this gift of time they felt was missing from the Rieslings of today, often bottled within 6, even 3 months of harvest, never being allowed to show their true potential.

What do the wines taste like?

The gift these wines bring is like no other. All steep sites, many very old vines, from incredible vineyards, all natural winemaking, where time is allowed to filter and stabilize the wines. 

They taste like nothing else in the valley. And even though they all have very fun, eye-catching labels, each bottle, each label, each wine tells its own story. There is a playfulness to the non-Riesling wines. The Pet-Nats are some of the best I’ve ever had, more like Champagne or Jacky Blot’s triple zero, than glou-glou. The orange wines are great versions of an often thrown away style.

But sometimes, with the Rieslings, especially the top bottlings,  you have to be patient while you drink them, they need to open up, some need to age further. They are not fruit forward, they are almost all dry, not austere, but sometimes a little stern. 

At the very least I think everyone should try them. They won’t be for the masses, but I’m hard pressed to imagine that there isn’t something for everyone in this line up.

*Philipp has drastically changed the style of his family wines. He’s traded his flat vineyards for those uphill the steepest, coolest sites. Viticulture is now organic and biodynamic practicing, but without the shackles of certification. The focus is on light bodied, elegant Kabinett and Spatlese, with low levels of RS. They are wines that make you smile. I imagine Dirk is very proud.