We have worked with Daniel and Jonas Daniel Brand (pictured above, left to right) for about a decade.
In this short time period, they have essentially reinvented the family estate, converting to organic viticulture, bringing the cellar to only natural ferments and completely transforming the lineup of wines.
Yet they have preserved their estate’s eclectic diversity, one that ranges from Riesling to Pinot Blanc, Silvaner and Portugieser and more.
They have reclaimed family farmland, long since leased to larger commercial farmers, and brought these sites to organic farming, planting many heirloom varieties of grains and potatoes. Jonas is now selling grains and more to some of the best small restaurants in Frankfurt and Mainz.
In this same time span, while the natural wine world has gone through its own growing pains, the brothers have quietly and without all that much fanfare or hype continued to turn out some of the most honest and transparent natural wines in Germany.
And this deserves some bold-and-ital font treatment: The wines are priced fairly for real drinkers.
They are found widely on the top natural lists all over France, Sweden, Copenhagen and, yes, Germany and the U.S. and beyond.
The wines are pure and authentic; you can feel it. While their liters are wonderful and are wonderfully represented, these top “Pur” wines are their signature wines. This is where their heart is and you can taste it.
What these wines were ten years ago, they are still today, although perhaps a bit more refined. Across the board their wines showcase – they flaunt – the two characteristics that I look for in wine above all else: clarity and acidity.
While we do our best to keep the liters in stock year-round, we just can’t manage with the entire collection. There are simply too many wines in too little quantities; releases are done based on the wines’ development and not the vintage, so it’s all a bit of a beautiful riddle wrapped in a mystery. So it goes.
In order to make all this semi-legible, we’ve coordinated with Jonas and Daniel to offer the following “Pur” wines, listed below. Some are pretty available, others are wildly limited.
This is our final pre-sell of the year; and this is the only time you’ll see or be able to buy some of these wines. So here ya go.
For industry, please let us know your needs by Friday, September 13th. Consumers, let us know what you are interested in and we can connect you with a nearby retailer!
Find all the wines and notes below – we hope to have these wines in later this year!
2023 Piquette ~$20
This is made 100% from young-vine Pinot Noir and some Dornfelder. Super fresh and super low in alcohol, only 7.5%.
2023 Pét-Nat Blanc and Rosé! ~$35
The 2023ers are perfumed, forward, gushing and delicious. The rosé this year is 100% Pinot Noir, bright and super vibrant. Jonas and Daniel are famous for being the first producers in Germany to do Pét-Nats. I think it’s safe to say they remain among the best, if not the best in Germany. These Pét-Nats are ultra-light and gossamer, yet intense and aromatic.
2023 Brand “Wildersatz” ~$28
A blend of everything and the kitchen sink, this is their tip-of-the-hat to the field blends of yore, albeit a bit more structured and wilder – thus instead of “Gemischter Satz,” we have “Wilder Satz.” Ultra-light and fresh, aromatic but not floral, normally with a bit of skin contact and grip – a very light-styled orange wine. Note the 2023 is super exuberant and does have some VA.
2023 Brand “Red” ~$28
This is their “nouveau,” a blend of Pinot Noir, Dornfelder, Portugieser normally with a touch of white wine – Silvaner and Riesling – for freshness and acid. This is a super-light (normally around 10% alcohol), chillable red, though it’s quite pungent and staining, like a Loire red with spice. It def. walks a bit the wild line with perfumed aromatics buoyed by VA.
2022 Brand Pinot Blanc “Pur”~$33
Clocking in at only 11.5%, the wine has superb concentration and is dark-fruited, almost quince and black current, wonderfully spicy and great lemon oils and lemon pith underwriting the whole experience. Damn I love this. To me this is one of their greatest wines, year after year after year, so perfectly straddling the natural and classic wine world – at least from the perspective of its linear finesse and unapologetic minerality. This is just a great white wine.
2023 Brand Riesling “Pur” ~$33
Direct and salty, great citrus tones and minerality – very similar to the Pinot Blanc but even more linear and incisive – perhaps less finesse but more cut and energy.
2022 Brand Pinot Noir “Pur” ~$40
The Pinot Noir is vibrant and crunchy, red-fruited with plenty of herbal spice and a great, refreshing core of minerality. It’s on the rustic side, but rustic like a Nuits-St.-George, with fine tannins and a grip that pairs perfectly with roast chicken or some medium-hearty fare. Absolutely delicious.
2020 Brand Pinot Blanc “Holy Chapel” ~$40 – VERY LIMITED!
This is the only single-vineyard Pinot Blanc they make; similar to the regular but broader and more fruit-driven but also more structured and mineral. Deeeeeeeep.
2022 Brand Riesling “Monastery” ~$48 – VERY LIMITED!
This is one of two single-vineyard Riesling bottlings; I tasted the 2022 in March of this year and it was cut and salty, really beautifully herbal and garden fresh, yet with a dense, citric core; super concentrated. Butterfly and the ballerina? This comes from a site called “Klosterschäffnerei” at the foot of the Sonnenberg hill. It is a warm, south-facing site and produces the boldest and deepest dry Riesling the Brands make. In 2022 though it has, for me, more elegance and refinement.
2022 Brand Riesling “Hill of Flags” ~$48 – VERY LIMITED!
This is one of two single-vineyard Riesling bottlings, from a site called “Fahneberg” which would loosely translate to “Hill of Flags.” It is a limestone-dense parcel, toward the top of the Sonnenberg, so very cool and windy. This is the most linear and incisive of the two Rieslings, with a higher acidity and more pronounced minerality.
2020 or 2021 Brand Silvaner “Elis” ~$62 – VERY LIMITED!
This comes from a tiny site of old-vine Silvaner (40 years and much older) that was tended by an older lady in the village named Elis; when she retired she gifted the parcel to the brothers who now tend it as one tends a garden. The grapes are picked and the single barrel is allowed to oxidize a bit, so the wine can have something of hay- and grass-driven aromaticity of a great Jura wine. It also has just a rigorous and impressive structure, great juicy salt-laden acids and such rigor, length and depth. This is a meditative wine that deserves to be drunk over days. The 2021 is the more focused of the two; the 2020 is more forward and generous.