(Manfred Klimek)
Even before the first bottle is opened here, the Rieger Winery reveals virtually everything about itself. How so? It’s all down to the people. We are in the Markgräflerland, in the very south-west of Germany.
In the dining room of the winery’s wine bar, Josepha and Bernhard Rieger serve their guests. They don’t come across as the veteran owners they are, but rather as winemakers who are genuinely delighted to see every visitor; and visitors here come in no small number from neighbouring Switzerland, where they pay at least a third more for the same quality of wine and tarte flambée.
Their son Philipp now runs the winery. He possesses that pleasant melancholy which people develop when their lives have had to endure sudden and unexpected upheavals at an early age. Such upheavals rarely make life stories any easier, but they almost always make them more interesting. Perhaps that is why he approaches his wines entirely without pathos. In an industry where some winemakers feel the need to declare their greatness from the very first sentence, this is a refreshing quality.
Then there is Markus Brauchle, cellar master and head of international sales. Amidst the barrels and tanks, a conversation about literature suddenly springs up. Completely out of the blue, he pulls Harald Irnberger’s cult Viennese book *Geil* out of a bag, talks about it with the same enthusiasm as he does about wine, and hands it to me to read as I take my leave. That, too, is part of what makes a good winery: it engages people whose interests extend far beyond grape varieties and fermentation temperatures.
And finally, sitting next to me in the delivery van is Nina, a young member of the Riegers’ staff, who drives me through the vineyards (I’ve never got my driving licence, after all), plays some great music from her Spotify account and turns out to be something of an intellectual wine groupie: one of those people who don’t simply take wine for granted, but are curious about what lies behind it. Whilst the vines roll by outside, we talk about everything under the sun – and rather little about wine. Conversations like this can’t be planned. They just happen.
It’s only afterwards that I start to take an interest in the winery itself. They’ve been farming organically since 2005 and to Demeter standards since 2010 – and all without any great eco-fanfare. Today, the family cultivates more than 25 hectares of vineyards, ranks among the largest biodynamic estates in Baden-Württemberg and, as I see it, combines consistently high-quality winemaking – accessible to a wide audience – with a remarkably understated modernity – serene and good.
Now to two wines that the Rieger-Brauchle team has put on my table. First, the wine from the Riegers that I find most interesting: it is not one of their world-class top wines, but rather the Pinot Noir from the Löss, which is still considered a simple wine (vintage 2023, €12.00). At a time when red wines are selling increasingly poorly (why is that, actually?), this red wine is what the British call a ‘burner’ – a consumer product that we immediately understand and enjoy. This Pinot is worth far more than it costs: heart-shaped cherry, rosehip with a fair degree of ripeness and a hint of bitterness, almost no plum, but a touch of blueberry and a hint of cassis, just like the great local wines from Burgundy, some 200 km away. Brilliantly easy to drink. And best of all: we can easily leave this wine to age in the cellar for another ten years. Thanks to its acidity, it will then become one of the region’s finest mature red wines. And it’s a real bargain.
Next up is the 2022 Gewürztraminer Hitzbuck (€22.00): one of Germany’s most interesting and finest Gewürztraminers: On the nose, hints of marzipan, yellow flowers, cherry, Nashi pear, a touch of cypress, followed by a sea breeze, rose and raisin, and wax. On the palate, a hint of fresh sweetness and honeydew melon, though far drier than the nose suggests. The subtle Campari-like bitterness in the finish transforms this Gewürztraminer – normally a rather unremarkable variety – into a real experience. World-class winemaking.