Anna and Lukas Pas de Deux

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The first collaborative wine from Anna Niepoort and Lukas Brandstatter, Pas de Deux comes from vines around 50 years old in the central part of the Spitzerberg vineyard, a site where the sandy limestone soil mixes with a little clay, resulting in grapes characterized by juicy fruitiness and delicate freshness. 

For Lukas Brandstatter, the 2023 vintage marked his tenth wine produced at the Dorli Muhr winery. With this wine, created in collaboration with Dorli’s daughter Anna, Lukas aimed to showcase a particularly contemporary and light-footed expression of the Spitzerberg vineyard. Anna contributed the desire to create a Blaufrankisch that she and her generation would enjoy: not too heavy, yet complex and elegant. At the same time, the wine embodies the approach of their #RethinkRed campaign: red wine can be refreshing, food-friendly, and expressive without sacrificing depth. 

Restraint was therefore paramount in the vinification process: half of the grapes were destemmed and fermented for three days with natural yeasts without stirring the cap. After pressing, the batches aged for a year in old 500-l barrels. The other half of the grapes remained stemmed undergoing whole bunch fermentation and then gently crushed by foot. After seven days of extraction, the pressed juice was transferred to a 500-l barrel for further fermentation and also aged for a year on the lees. Subsequently, both components were lightly sulfured, combined in a 1000-liter Mosel cask, and left on the fine lees until bottling. The wine was bottled in May 2025. 

Pas de Deux unites the ideas of Anna and Lukas: light, structured, fresh and complex, a modern expression of Blaufrankisch, from two friends working in harmony.