2Naturkinder Kleine Wanderlust

Micheal Voelker and Melanie Drese spent many years working in other fields, traveling the world and living in Heidelberg, Regensburg, London, and New York. In 2013 they returned to begin taking over Michael’s father’s winery in Kitzingen in Bavarian Germany. Michael’s father is a long time winemaker, who in fact sits on the quality control board for the appellation, but has been very supportive of Michael’s desire to make wine without additives.

They began to make natural wines under the 2naturkinder label as a side project for the winery, and since then have decided to fully expand the project to take over more of the winery’s production. Michael has a particular interest in bats in the vineyard, and a few of the labels are inspired by them. He obtains bat guano from a local nature conservancy, which he uses when fertilizer is required. He is also sponsoring a research project to fund the role of bats in the vineyard.

Grapes are hand harvested and for the Regent the grapes are destemmed while the Dornfelder is left in whole bunches. The Regent is fermented on the skins for about 10 days and the Dornfelder is fermented semi-carbonically, foot stomped once a day for about a week. The wine ferments in wooden tank for about 4 weeks without temperature control, where rests for about 5 more months in the same tank. The wine is not racked and is left on the full lees for the duration, until it is bottled unfined and unfiltered with zero addition of sulfur.