FIO

FIO is the Mosel project of Dirk Niepoort, his son Daniel and the Piesport grower Philipp Kettern (of the Lothar Kettern estate, per the US importer Skurnik), founded in 2012 according to German merchants; the producer's own site names the three partners and explains the premise but gives no date. The premise, in their words, is old-school wines with long elevage and traditional techniques for natural stabilisation, and it had to be Mosel and it had to be Riesling. The naked facts, as the site puts it: every vine on steep slopes, spontaneous fermentation, copious time on the lees in old Mosel fuders, bottled unfiltered with no or minimal added sulphur, then up to two years' further maturation in bottle before release.

Skurnik places the vineyards on the steep slopes of Piesport and Leiwen, with Goldtröpfchen, Josephsberg and Falkenberg supplying the top material, old vines on single poles used across all quality levels, and farming without herbicides, chemical fertiliser or pesticides, sheep doing the weeding, practising organic without certification. The range runs from the one-litre Nat'Cool Riesling and the Piu Piu pet-nats through Fabelhaft, Jojo, Teppo and Socalcos to the single-site Falkenberg and the Rätzelhaft and CabiSehrNett bottlings, plus an alcohol-free Fabelhaft.