Summary
Weingut Bergdolt-Reif & Nett in Duttweiler is one of the most unusual estates in the Pfalz – and one of the most restless. Around 35 hectares produce certified organic wines from Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer, plus reds that run all the way to rarities such as Lagrein. The name tells the family story: the houses of Bergdolt, Reif and Nett were joined over the generations through inheritance, adoption and marriage into the estate that Christian Nett now runs in the fifth generation. What has drawn attention lately are two things that rarely go together: horse-drawn work in the best vineyard, and one of Germany's most ambitious alcohol-free wine ranges.
History
The foundation stone dates to 1838, when the two sandstone vaulted cellars that still lie beneath the estate were built in Duttweiler. Viticulture in the village is far older: the Duttweiler monastic estate was church property from the Middle Ages and, after secularisation, was administered for a long stretch by the University of Heidelberg.
The manor house went up around 1900, and in the course of an estate division the paths of two branches of the Bergdolt family separated. Since then there have been two independent wineries in Duttweiler carrying the Bergdolt name, which should not be confused with one another. Today's triple name Bergdolt-Reif & Nett is the result of succession, adoption and marriage, through which the three families became linked across the generations.
The most recent chapter belongs to Christian Nett, who joined the business as a young man and now leads it in the fifth generation – since 2008 alongside his wife Katja. Under him the estate grew into a medium-sized operation, converted to organic farming and moved into a new cellar building in 2017, its façade treated with the Japanese wood-charring technique Shou Sugi Ban.
Location & Terroir
Duttweiler does not sit on the well-known Haardt range but east of it, on the open plain between Neustadt an der Weinstraße and Speyer. The vineyards lie at roughly 120 to 140 metres – no steep slope, but a great deal of sun and warmth.
The real key is the soil. Beneath Duttweiler lie loess and clay layers more than ten metres thick, threaded with fine veins of limestone. Soils like these store water superbly and release it slowly to the vines through dry summers – an increasingly valuable advantage. At the same time the limestone content gives the wines drive and salinity rather than mere volume. The warm, sunny climate of the southern Palatinate also allows Mediterranean varieties to ripen alongside the classics.
Style & Philosophy
The guiding idea of the house is put plainly: the wines should be ones the makers themselves want to drink. In practice that means dry, clearly drawn wines with drinkability – Riesling taut and citrusy, the Pinot family creamy and nutty, Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc emphatically aromatic.
The range is organised in four tiers: Tradition for fresh everyday wines, Edition for richer bottlings partly matured in wood, Avantgarde for selections from old vines with ageing potential, and Prestige for the summit from the Mandelberg.
Beside that stands a second, deliberately cheeky world: the concept wines with striking labels and names such as “Herzschlag”, “Nettswerk” or “Glaube-Liebe-Hoffnung”, aimed squarely at younger drinkers. And finally the de-alcoholised ranges Reverse and Breakaway – not a sideline but a development project in its own right, for which the estate worked systematically through the available alcohol-removal techniques.
In the vineyard the philosophy means hand work above all. Since 2011 parts of the Mandelberg have been worked with a horse so that the soil stays loose; the harvest there is done by hand.
Notable Sites & Wines
The estate's most important site is the Duttweiler Mandelberg, source of the Prestige wines and regarded as the finest vineyard of the village. Other Duttweiler sites in the estate's hands are the Kroatenpfad and the Doktor.
- Duttweiler Mandelberg – origin of the top wines, worked in part with a horse
- Duttweiler Kroatenpfad and Duttweiler Doktor – the basis for village and single-site wines
- Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris from ungrafted vines – a speciality of the house
- Riesling across all four quality tiers
- Reverse and Breakaway – the alcohol-free wines from Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir
- Herzschlag, Nettswerk, Glaube-Liebe-Hoffnung – the best-known concept wines
Awards
The wine guides treat Christian Nett as a safe bet in the Palatinate; Falstaff regularly lists the estate among the region's recommended producers. Most of the recent attention, though, has gone to the alcohol-free range: at the Falstaff trophy for alcohol-free wines several of the estate's bottlings – among them Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer – scored around 90 points and took top places in a category long dismissed as a compromise.
Weingut Bergdolt-Reif & Nett thus stands as a model of a Palatinate that does not preserve its tradition but keeps thinking it forward: organic farming and horse-drawn work in the best vineyard on one side, label design and de-alcoholisation on the other.