Tasting Profile
Composition & Vinification
The declared ingredient list is 100% Wild Blueberry.[1]
Wild Blueberry — Sole Component. The berries used are wild blueberries, which Obsthof Retter describes as roughly ten times smaller than cultivated blueberries while carrying an aroma intensity with no equal. Their low yield means the harvest is done by hand. For the Edition Sommelier line, the producer sources its wild berries and fruits from wild and primeval forest sites that mostly grow autochthonously.[1],[2],[3]
Provenance & Sourcing
Specifications. WILD Heidelbeere is a wild blueberry Fruchtessenz (fruit essence) issued under Obsthof Retter's Edition Sommelier label, alongside the WILD, WELL and FLY sub-ranges of the Wildfrucht Essenzen collection.
Production. The essence is produced by Obsthof Retter, a family manufactory operating since 1886 in Austria's Pöllau Valley — the homeland of the Hirschbirne and the Kronprinz Rudolf apple — which grew from a small farm into an internationally recognized organic fruit manufactory.
Ingredients Policy. The essence is made entirely without added sugar, water, or flavorings.[1]
Production Philosophy
WILD Heidelbeere is a wild blueberry fruit essence made by Obsthof Retter for its Edition Sommelier line of Wildfrucht Essenzen. The fruit is pressed from hand-harvested wild berries. Rather than being filtered, the essence is clarified naturally, and it is then matured in the historic Pöllau castle cellar.[1]
The maturation step is common to the range: Obsthof Retter states that its wild fruit essences require constant temperatures so that fruit acid can break down naturally, and that the limited vintage bottlings rest within the thick walls of the Pöllau castle cellar until they reach optimal drinking maturity. The same materials describe the Wild Fruit Essences as a first pressing — the "heart" or quintessence of the fruit — with yield deliberately foregone in favour of denser, more aroma-rich results than conventional juices.