Griesel was founded in 2013 in an old traditional cellar located in the centre of the small town of Bensheim in the Hessische Bergstraße, dug into a hill called ‘Griesel’. Niko Brandner, partner and director of the estate, began purchasing some old vineyards around Bensheim in 2014 on land with very high potential, mainly granitic: the vineyards here are very small, sometimes steep and very diverse, requiring a great deal of manual labour. Niko is now assisted in the management by Rachele Crosara, from Parma, who arrived in Griesel as a travelling oenologist, planning to stay for an internship during the 2017 harvest. Having started out as a cellar worker, Rachele is now definitely the soul of Griesel. The grapes are harvested manually and, after pressing the whole bunches, the first fermentation takes place spontaneously, as does malolactic fermentation. Refermentation in the bottle strictly follows the classic method, with long periods on the lees. Niko and his team’s aim is to produce pure, terroir-driven sparkling wines that paradoxically strive to be both vertical and complex, representing the best of German production.