Daniel Twardowski, Pinot Noix, Mosel 2020 - 75cl

The name is a joke that stuck. Daniel Twardowski watched ravens crack walnut shells against the bare slate of his Mosel vineyard and called his wine Pinot Noix - walnut Pinot. What sits behind the pun is one of Germany's most obsessive Pinot Noir projects, and bottles that surface only in tiny quantities.

Twardowski learned his craft in Burgundy and carried the connections home. His Pinot Noir clones came from friends at Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Ponsot; his early barrels were cast-offs from DRC and Leroy. He planted on the steep slate of the Hofberg in the Mosel, where cool nights and a scrap of salt in the soil give the fruit a nervy tension you rarely find this far north. Fermentation is spontaneous with wild yeast in open tanks, then seventeen to eighteen months in seasoned barrels sourced from the likes of Rousseau and Margaux.

The 2020 is all delicacy. Sour cherry and blackcurrant lead the nose, threaded with rose and a cold, wet-stone minerality that reads as pure Mosel slate. The palate is weightless and precise, carried by a zesty acidity, the red fruit transparent and clear rather than dense. It finishes long and mineral, more whisper than statement. Lovely now, and built to gain savoury depth over the next five to eight years.

How to Serve

Serve cool at 14°C in a fine Burgundy glass. Skip the decanter - this is too delicate for it; just give it a few minutes in the glass.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot, Bloomsbury - the room most likely to have a Mosel Pinot on by the glass anyway.
Planque, Haggerston - cellar-driven cooking built around bottles this curious.
The River Cafe, Hammersmith - where a delicate red flatters simple, exact Italian plates.

Food Pairings

Try it with roast quail and a scatter of wild mushrooms - the wine's slate edge and low weight sit under the bird without crushing it.