In recent years, the Blankenhorn Winery has impressively demonstrated that, with a clear vision and consistent hard work, it is possible not only to revive a winery from its slumber, but also to restore it to the very top of an entire region. Over the coming days, the winery will be presenting its two new VDP.GROSSEN GEWÄCHSE® wines from the Sonnenstück vineyard for the first time at the VDP preview event in Wiesbaden, Germany: the 2023 Sonnenstück Chardonnay GG and the 2022 Sonnenstück Pinot Noir GG. The wines will officially be available from 1. September.
Alongside Gutedel, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir have been Martin Männer’s favourite varieties from the very beginning. They are the two varieties to which he has devoted the greatest amount of care and attention, completely restructuring the vineyards since taking over the estate in 2014 to bring out the very best these grapes can express on the unique soils of Sonnenstück. The vineyard itself represents the prime parcel of the Schliengener Sonnenstück vineyard area, situated in the very southwest of Germany.
From the top of the 250-metre-high, steep hillside, you can look out across both neighbouring France and Switzerland. The site is home to Pinot Noir vines up to 30 years old, alongside newly planted parcels with high-density planting, as well as a Vitiforst project combining vines with fruit trees and native shrubs. Since 2024, Martin Männer and his team have been farming the vineyards biodynamically, and starting with the 2026 vintage, the estate will also be officially certified organic.
The 2022 vintage was a year of extremes. A sunny, unusually early warm spring was followed by one of the hottest summers on record. While the intense sunshine and prolonged drought put some of the younger vines under considerable stress, the deeply rooted older vines remained remarkably unfazed. One positive side effect of the dry conditions was that fungal diseases such as downy mildew were hardly a concern. Rain at the beginning of September finally brought some relief, allowing Martin Männer and his team to harvest exceptionally healthy grapes. The Baden Winegrowers’ Association even described 2022 as a “textbook vintage.”
The 2023 vintage, by contrast, called for considerably more manual work in the vineyards. A warm March led to early budbreak, while fortunately, the occasional night frosts caused no damage at Weingut Blankenhorn. May and June once again brought dry conditions and plenty of sunshine. Then the weather changed: July and August were warm, humid and significantly wetter than average, resulting in a noticeable increase in the risk of rot. Vineyard manager Christian Fin and his harvest team had their hands full. But the hard work paid off: through rigorous early selection and a swift harvest, they were able to bring in perfectly ripe, healthy Chardonnay grapes.
The grapes for the Chardonnay were selectively hand-harvested at an early stage. Following spontaneous fermentation, the wine was aged for more than ten months in oak vessels on its full lees. After undergoing a natural, partial malolactic fermentation, the wine was bottled ahead of the 2024 harvest and then matured for a further two years in bottle. For this profound and multi-layered wine, Martin Männer recommends pairing it with foie gras terrine and toasted bread, or a gratin of salsify and porcini mushrooms.
Alcohol: 13% vol.
Residual sugar: 3.5 g/l
Acidity: 7.7 g/l
Price: €35 at the winery
The Pinot Noir is traditionally harvested immediately afterwards. Here, too, the grapes undergo rigorous selection before being cold-macerated. Fermentation takes place spontaneously in open fermentation vessels and lasts around 16 days. The wine is then aged in oak barrels for 18 months before being bottled, where it matures for another year prior to release.
For the winemaker, this elegant Pinot Noir calls for something equally refined: it pairs beautifully with venison and blackberry sauce or roasted duck breast with cherry sauce, for those who feel this wine needs any accompaniment at all.
Alcohol: 13% vol.
Residual sugar: 0.6 g/l
Acidity: 5.7 g/l
Price: €42 at the winery
Both wines can confidently be enjoyed now, but are equally worth storing in the cellar for several more years. They are only at the beginning of what promises to be a fascinating journey of Burgundy-like evolution.
Martin Männer and cellar master Christoph Fischer have once again demonstrated their exceptional expertise with Chardonnay across all quality levels. For the second time, their Chardonnay Ortswein took first place at the Berlin Chardonnay Award. As jury president and competition initiator Felix Bodmann puts it: “Winning twice in a row is unlikely to be a coincidence.”
With 97 points, the 2023 Schliengen Chardonnay took the top spot. The jury praised it for its “very clean nose with oak and a whole basket of fruit. The palate offers plenty of sweet fruit, colourful in the best possible sense, with vibrant acidity and a supportive, pleasantly warming alcohol. Great length with lovely texture and fine tannins.”
‘He's crazy.’ Martin Männer has heard this phrase more than a few times since he took over the Blankenhorn winery in Markgräflerland in Germany's Baden in 2014. The Kaiserstuhl native does not come from a long-established winemaking family and he is not a trained winemaker. Instead, he is a career changer par excellence. Wine was his passion and hobby for many years until his manifest enthusiasm, grand vision saw him throw caution to the wind and take this big step.
