Birnenschaumwein Alkoholfrei

The Champagner Bratbirne has carried that name since 1797, and it earned it because people were already making outstanding sparkling wine from the variety before then. The trees bearing it now are over a century old, and smallholders still hand-pick the fruit. What follows is the most elaborate process Manufaktur Jörg Geiger runs. The pears are after-ripened by a method the house calls sweating, pressed, fermented once to convert their own sugar, then bottled into champagne bottles for a second fermentation and left on the lees for several years. Only then are the bottles uncorked and the alcohol removed completely by vacuum distillation. Juice from almost semi-dried pears goes back in at the finish. The brioche on the nose is earned by that lees ageing rather than added. Sweetness stays restrained, the acidity is well integrated, and a faint tannic grip closes it. Serve at 8 to 10°C as an apéritif or with delicate fish.