dROP 24
Drop 24 - The Drop that just landed
With Antoine Berthelot, Lukas Hammelmann and Bernhard Huber
Just landed: a small spring drop for everyone who likes to be early.
We start in the Côte des Bar with Antoine Berthelot, a young winemaker turning family vines into his very first tiny releases. His La Grande Vigne comes from a single south-facing Pinot Noir parcel in Verpillières-sur-Ource, bottled non-dosé and with no unnecessary makeup. Only around 700 bottles exist worldwide — a very young Champagne, still full of future, but already showing that quiet, serious energy we love.
From there, we move to Germany, where Lukas Hammelmann is back with the Chardonnay with the fish on the label. Last year, everyone went crazy for the 2023 — now the new release has landed. Bright, tense, textured, and definitely still young, this is one to taste now and maybe hide a few bottles from yourself.
And to finish, Bernhard Huber Weissburgunder 2022: Baden precision, Burgundian calm, and that elegant Huber confidence. It’s already beautiful, but there’s no rush here either — this is the kind of wine that will only get more composed with time.
Three young wines, three different moods, one spring drop.
Open one now. Lay one down. Thank yourself later.
La grande vigne
ANTOINE BERTHELOT
La Grande Vigne is a Champagne with a beginning-story built into it. Antoine Berthelot is a young winemaker from Verpillières-sur-Ource in the Côte des Bar, working with family vines that were planted by his father and uncle in the 1980s. For decades, the family farmed the vineyards and sold the fruit — but with the 2023 harvest, Antoine decided to vinify the grapes himself for the first time. That makes this one of those rare bottles where you can taste not only a place, but also the start of a domaine finding its own voice.
The wine comes from a single Pinot Noir parcel called La Grande Vigne, sitting high on the slope at almost 300 meters, exposed full south on shallow, very stony soils. During the cellar tastings, one 500L barrel stood out to Antoine for its purity and expression, so he decided to bottle it separately. It was raised on lees for 10 months, bottled without fining or filtration, disgorged by hand, and finished non-dosé.
Only 720 bottles were made, which gives the wine that slightly unreal feeling of something you almost have to be lucky to meet. It has also only just been freshly disgorged, so please give it a little time before opening. You have exactly one chance to taste this bottle — and honestly, I would open it in 2027.
Right now, it is still very young, still tight and full of future, but already you can feel the shape: Pinot Noir with grip, tension and quiet power, carried by the stony freshness of the Côte des Bar. There is no big Champagne makeup here, no polished house-style gloss — just one parcel, one barrel, one first chapter.
Hochstadt Roter Berg 2024
LUKAS HAMMELMANN
Chardonnay Hochstadt Roter Berg is one of those bottles that explains pretty quickly why Lukas Hammelmann has become such a name to watch in Germany. He started young, built his own tiny project alongside serious cellar work, and today farms only a few hectares in the Pfalz — including the Hochstadter Roter Berg. The style is very Lukas: hand-picked fruit, spontaneous fermentation, long lees ageing, no unnecessary polishing, and wines that feel precise without ever becoming too well-behaved.
The Roter Berg has always had a little more depth and seriousness. There is this mix of tension, texture and quiet power — Chardonnay with structure, but not heaviness. Right now, the wine is bright, compact and full of energy, with citrus, stone, grip and a good sharp reduction running through it. That slightly electric Hammelmann edge is exactly what made the BTB lovers go completely crazy for last year’s release.
And now the 2024 has landed.
But please: this is still super young. Really young. It needs at least another six months to calm down, open up and show the full picture. Taste it now only if you are curious about the raw material. Otherwise, give it a little time.
I would start opening this from late 2026 onwards.
For now, it is a bottle with everything in place — just still stretching into itself.
Breisgau 2022
BERNHARD HUBER
This is the old lady in our young drop — and yes, we mean that with love.
Weissburgunder might not be the first grape most wine nerds chase, but this Pinot Blanc absolutely deserves to stand at BTB. Sometimes you have to look beyond the obvious — and honestly, that is where some of the best bottles are hiding.
Bernhard Huber has long been one of the great names for Burgundian varieties in Baden, and since Julian Huber took over the cellar, the wines have become even more precise, calm and deeply focused. The estate is rooted in Malterdingen, working with limestone soils and that very Huber kind of quiet seriousness: nothing loud, nothing dressed up, just depth, balance and insane attention to detail.
The 2022 Weissburgunder is exactly that. Elegant, textured, mineral, grown-up. It has a beautiful reduction, but not in an aggressive way — more like a fine savory line running through the wine, giving it tension, shape and a little extra seriousness. It does not try to impress you in the first five seconds. It just slowly takes over the table.
For me, this is one of the best Pinot Blancs I have ever tasted.
And yes: please drink it blind.
Let people guess. Let them be wrong adn play a little game.
APPLICATION
The goat series | chapter 1
With Antoine Berthelot, Lukas Hammelmann and Bernhard Huber
Important Note
Due to its limited availability, we want to ensure a fair distribution.
Country Allocations: Each country has a specific allocation of wine boxes. This approach helps us distribute the boxes fairly across different regions. I can only sell to the following countries: Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Austria.