B.A.D 2023, meaning BAD ASS DORNFELDER is a natural wine crafted by Marto Wines, in the Rheinhessen region in Germany. This red wine is made with 100% Dornfelder grapes, often seen as an old-fashioned German grape, sometimes dismissed as being only fruity and without much else going on. Here Martin Wörner and his partner Alanna Lagamba give it a different dimension.. and some serious attitude! It's Bad Ass!
Technical infomation on B.A.D 2023 by Marto
B.A.D, standing for Bad Ass Dornfelder is grown on heavy clay limestone in Rheinhessen, on vines aged 35 years old. The vineyard is 1/2 a hectare and grown at an altitude of 330m. Aging took place without battonage in a big 1200l Stuckfass barrel, which is 5 years old. Just 1600 bottles made.
Marto Wines background on B.A.D 2023
´A warm spring was followed by a very dry summer, which placed particular demands on us. The vegetation, which is an important component for humus formation in our farm's cycle, grew very poorly. Shortly before the start of harvest, after almost 12 weeks without any significant rainfall, it rained more in just a few days (over 200 liters per square meter) than it had rained the entire previous year. The excessive water caused some grape clusters to burst, necessitating a quick start to harvest. We harvested many vineyards in three passes to remove any burst berries before rot sets in. This allowed us to give the remaining grapes even more time to ripen to perfection. As a result, we have very exciting wines in the cellar that offer everything from acidity and freshness to full-ripe complexity. The 2023 tastes very lively, vibrant and complex and, in our opinion, has very good aging potential.´
´In 2023 we were so crazy busy with harvest that we thought we wouldn't have time to harvest this one vineyard, however end of September, I just happened to check on it and much to our surprise, the fruit was hanging healthy still! With the sun and the wind, the grapes had dried out and were oh so tiny, ripe and concentrated. So we decided to press it direct to express the amazing minerality in the soil, and we bottled it end of August, just before harvest. It's just fabulous, really pure juice, but also quite ripe´
