weingut roterfaden

rotweiss on weingut roterfaden

We travel to visit our winemakers, but not without swagger. We pack high caliber dialectics. We walk a serious organic walk and carry a big biodynamic stick. We come in the back door and they go out the front. Like this dude in Württemberg who wouldn’t get with the program. He thought he could argue with us, trying to make a virtue out of working exactly like they did 35 years ago. "Look at my wine press here. From the 1970s. Made in West-Germany. Cherished and cared for. Why keep buying new things when the old ones still work? That's ecology too!" he says. "Yeah, man. But," we say, and open some beer, "if you buy a new one, a closed one, you’ll need less sulfur. Support the future German mechanical engineering and not the past.” But nobody is listening today. We drop a few pithy eco-warrior lines and hit the road.

When you are about five kilometers from Roßwag, it looks as if you are heading towards a wall. As you get closer, it looks like a wave is rolling towards you. A rogue wave, a wall of grey water. At sea you would think: this is it. Wait, that wall is really a high, steep slope of grapevines on transverse terraces. There is a quarry on the right. Excavators and dust. The machines are eating the terraces! We have to go there immediately and blow up all the backhoes in the quarry. Ka-BOOM!

Occasionally a winery manages to embody the spirit of the times. Often new wineries try to use the all the best practices out there. Management flavour of the week. This could be the case at weingut roterfaden, but it is not. They have the killer concept of all time: serenity. You can't dictate what happens in the vineyard. What you can do is be a gardener. Abide in the vineyard, see how things are going. Help where you can, clearing and mowing and cutting. Why would you apply poisonous chemistry in the very place where you dwell, day in and day out? Bring the kids. It's beautiful in the vineyard. Most plots are very well maintained. We got the quarry all wrong. The wine growers love that quarry. They use the quarry stones to maintain their terrace walls. weingut roterfaden (lower case! cool!) is enchanting. You kind of have to slow down to really see what’s going on, and what’s not. It is quiet. No machines. No pumps are running, no leaf blowers wheezing. No weed whackers cracking. Behold the organic winemaker. Everything is wonderfully green and disheveled. The vineyards are so steep it’s like standing on a cliff. The vegetation is wild, cascading from terrace to terrace. This is anything but a monoculture. Amidst the vast diversity of plants, you eventually notice a shimmering of constant animal activity. There are millions of lizards, mice, beetles and bees. Hawks circle, calling, waiting for you to leave. Right in front of you at eye level a big green juicy caterpillar shows off and does a really slow backflip.

Is there a plan? Harvest the grapes you can and create something delicious from them. We know they are practicing biodynamics but they don’t make a grand show of it. Officially they are organic. Honestly who would start a wine business today that isn't?

We saw two basket presses, one small, the other tiny. State of the art from 1810, but brand new. This year's red wine has 10% alcohol. Light, drinkable and subtly intoxicating. The Riesling emits a cloud of opium and ends with resounding applause, bravo, bravissimo, bravo. We realise that we have asked no questions, made no notes about grape varieties, yield, barrel storage or extract. Is it okay if we just sit here a little longer and let it all sink in?