Baden is arguably Germany's secret wine stash. This historical wine region in southwestern Germany (a stone's throw from Alsace that's just across the Rhine River) is in fact the country's third largest wine region and is well known locally for quality Spatburgunder (as Pinot Noir is known in Germany) and yet is hardly known to the outside world. Baden is if anything more famous for being the Summer Capital of Europe where everyone from 1st century Roman Emperors to beloved 19th century artists like Johannes Brahms would gather each year for a good soak at the natural mineral hot springs. And so, that Baden's wines have seemingly compelled the attention of wine lovers overnight, is a feat that unsurprisingly would only be possible with the likes of Alexander Götze and Christoph Wolber - their domaine might be young but the pair bring with them each almost a decade of winemaking experience!
Both German natives - Alexander from Dresden (left in the picture above) and Christoph (on the right) from Baden's Staufen town - the pair had serendipitously met as roommates in Meursault, and had found a shared sensibility in the sort of wines they liked, and of course one thing led to another and both began their Wasenhaus project in 2016. Diving alittle deeper into their stories, the straight-talking Alexander (or Alex for short) was in fact a landscape architecture student who hadn't really thought about making wines and yet had found himself working at several wineries in Saxony simply to pay tuition. During his time amongst the vines, Alex would start to feel a great dissatisfaction - he had been working with conventional vineyards and would regularly be asked to apply chemicals and fertilisers, which he found harsh and out of place these plastic containers bearing skulls and crossbones. The experience made Alex question if there was another way and would spur him to find out for himself when he had worked at Pian dell'Orino, a fiercely biodynamic vineyard in the Tuscan hillsides of Montalcino. The positive experience opened his eyes to what was possible through organic winemaking and would push him on to his next step. Alex had by this time become fully ingratiated into the world of winemaking and having learnt the ropes around making Tuscan reds, he would then pursue learning how to make Burgundian whites. This came in the form of the legendary Domaine Pierre Morey. Pierre Morey, of the historic Burgundian Morey dynasty, had spent two decades overseeing the legendary biodynamic pioneer Domaine Leflaive and was now in full swing establishing the domaine of his own name. Alex would drop Morey an email and what was meant to be just one season turned into several years, during which Morey would even put Alex on proper oenology studies at the university in Beaune all through his apprenticeship.
The last day of classes, Alex was cycling back to Meursault when he would have a chance encounter with Brian Sieve of the famed Domaine de Montille. This would eventually turn into a full time gig for Alex as Domaine de Montille's vineyard manager. During this time, Alex had taken up residence in an old former hotel room in Meursault. Together with just one other German lady, Alex would find out from her later on that a third German native had showed up and was looking for a place to stay. Alex's spare room would thus go to the new resident, Christoph Wolber. Now Christoph had grown up in Baden's Staufen town, and like Alex, not only did not come from a winemaking family, but had also no plans from the outset to make wines himself (and neither did his brother Bastian for that matter, but who too would eventually pursue winemaking and would establish himself as yet another leading new generation winemaker under the name Laisse Tomber).
Yet a bottle of white Burgundy from the cult Bernard Van Berg would change all of that. Christoph was so compelled by the wine that he had tasted that as the story goes, he would get on a motorbike and drive all the way to Burgundy and get himself to Van Berg's doorstep where he would convince the winemaker to offer him an internship. Christoph would go on to rack up an enviable set of experiences himself, having subsequently worked for the likes of Domaine Leflaive, Comte Armand and Domaine de la Vougeraie - all of whom were famed for their adherence to biodynamic principles. On Alex's encouragement, Christoph too would undergo the same oenology study program at Beaune's university, after which he would decide that it was time for him to head back to Baden where his friends and family were at. For a brief moment, this might've felt like the split in the road for the two friends, and yet a little side project that was about to happen would change it all and create Baden's next rising star.
Baden's extensive acreage had historically been farmed by cooperatives who often valued production volumes, efficiency and practical methods, with much of their wines catered for domestic consumption at value prices. This meant prioritising lower lying flatter vineyards, the use of heavier handed mechanical machinery and chemical fertilisers, as well as the widespread farming of German Spatburgunder clones that were super vigorous, productive and took the form of large clusters with stems that often did not ripen. Yet at the same time, given the region's history of winegrowing, it also meant old vines in quality soils that ranged from limestone to volcanic, which were often tucked away in little pockets that were hidden amongst the higher altitude steeper slopes that led into the famous and almost mystical Black Forest (or Schwarzwald, the setting of many books and fairytales).
This made for the perfect conditions for a more artisanal approach and allowed for Christoph to get a foot in the door with a tiny initial 0.5 hectare vineyard - these were considered too low yielding and too laborious to farm which made them unwanted by the cooperatives, and yet Christoph saw the opportunity to revitalise them. Christoph would also rent an old, abandoned winery cellar and together they would call the project Wasenhaus, taking its name from the small farmhouse just outside of Staufen that belonged to Christoph's family (Wasen to mean prairie, and Haus to mean little house, which comes together as "little house on the prairie"). By 2016, the duo would produce their first vintage - a single Pinot Noir and a Weissburgunder (also known as Pinot Blanc), amongst others - which not only came out well but completely sold out even before it was bottled. Yet, both Alex and Christoph knew that as good as that debut vintage might have been, they were most certainly capable of more. This of course landed as the second vintage of what was otherwise meant to be a side project - Alex would continue his work at Domaine De Montille until 2020 when he would move to work on Wasenhaus full time. Today, Wasenhaus is ten vintages in, with its scope wider and more exciting than ever.
Thus it is here in Baden, Germany's warmest wine region which runs parallel to Alsace over and across the Rhine, bookmarked between the Black Forest and the Vosges, that Alex and Christoph have turned into their playground. With a wide spectrum of geological diversity, with soils that include limestone, volcanic soils, granite, sandy soils and loess, the two friends would carve out a name for themselves based on their commitment to working organically in small yet difficult vineyards, many of which holding rare, older vine material from decades prior that have been completely forgotten. And so they would spend the next decade opportunistically picking up small parcels of vineyards, especially keeping a look out those that felt like a treasure trove that held old vines that could be rehabilitated. As industrial winemaking took a greater hold in Germany from the 1960's and on, the duo had recognised that the only way to get their hands on better vines would be to find as original the clonal material as possible that would typically date further back.
Many of these vines ultimately were found along the steep hillsides which could only be farmed manually, and hence were often given up on as a result of their tediousness. The Wasenhaus pair would also favour more concentrated limestone soils which they felt would bring them closer to the ideal soils that are favoured in Burgundy, and if the site was favourable but did not have the vines they liked, they would then graft on Burgundian clones via selection massale (never clonal selection) in order to improve the diversity of the vineyard. Over time, Wasenhaus would rack up a reputation for its particularity and would lure similar minded growers to step forth and sell their sustainably farmed fruit to the winery, supplementing its still relatively small holdings of vineyards. Today they hold some 6 hectares of parcels in areas such as Ehrenstetten, Ebringen, Kaiserstuhl, Kirchhofen and Zunzingen.
Farming with Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir), Chardonnay, Riesling, Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Gutedel (Chasselas Blanc), Wasenhaus' portfolio of wines can be understood on three levels: single varietal wines, soil based wines and finally the single vineyards wines - only Spatburgunders are made at every level. Interestingly, Wasenhaus labels all of its wines "Landwein", which is its bid to retain creative freedom in its pursuit of wine purity, site expression and low intervention winemaking by voluntarily stepping outside of the strict German Prädikatswein system that comes with stylistic constraints.
Single Varietal Wines
The single varietal wines run from Spatburgunder to Chardonnay, Weissburgunder to Gutedel, typically made of fruits from younger vines, with the exact parcels used varying from vintage to vintage.
"Soil" Wines
The "soil" wines include just "Vulkan" and "Kalk", the former focusing on fruits harvested from vineyards in Kaiserstuhl, an extinct volcanic complex, whilst the latter comes from 40 year old vines in limestone soils around Ebringen.
Single Vineyard Wines
The single vineyard wines are then the most narrow, pinpointing the likes of the "Filzen" vineyard, a steep limestone rich vineyard in Kirchhofen, the "Hohlen" vineyard in Zunzingen which holds Spatburgunder vines from the 60's, "Kanzel" which was once farmed by Henrik Möbitz and is a cooler limestone and clay vineyard nearer to the heights of Ehrenstetten Öhlberg, "Bellen" which comes from a limestone vineyard between Kirchhofen and Pfaffenweiler and also holds Wasenhaus' Weissburgunder, and finally "Möhlin" which sits slightly lower and is composed of clay and limestone soils.
When it comes to their work, as is the case with many of the great winemakers, less is more, and much of it might even take the form of elucidation rather than manual labor. For a start, Alex and Christoph would first have to recognise what was at hand, which meant understanding Baden and its history with winegrowing, accepting where it differed from the ideal, and then closing that gap. Nowhere is this clearer than their perspective on the region's winemaking, with Alex stating "Yes, obviously those comparisons [of "Burgundy from Baden"] are nonsense. We make wine in the place and time we're in - and that's the 21st century in Baden. I guess people always need to categorise things; they can't let something exist on its own terms without giving it a category. And that's fine, I understand it - but I see this phrase slapped on every Pinot that someone wants to sell as serious wine, and most of the time it's just a disguise for not-quite-Burgundy... Of course, we apply here what we learned working with Pinot and Chardonnay back in Burgundy - but we're not living and working in Burgundy anymore. Baden is different, and Spätburgunder is different from Pinot Noir in Burgundy. That's why we keep Spätburgunder on our labels and not Pinot. Our wine can't be like Burgundy - it simply can't."
Alex would go on to point out, "Before, everyone said they were making wine like in Burgundy, but either no one really knew how it was done there, or they thought they could do it even better with some magic powders - and we all know that doesn't make things better. Now the younger generation is travelling more, listening more, and that shows in the quality. Germans love industrialisation - we love building cars, and that's essentially how we farm vineyards and make wine too. For every problem there's a technical solution. Most people in Germany always want to do more - make it cleaner, more efficient. I think we just don't share that instinct… The great Burgundy wines have been great for so long because the Burgundians are very stubborn. They didn't welcome modern oenology, clones, fancy machines - so the farming and winemaking, at least for the top producers, stayed pretty basic. In my book, that's pretty low-tech and low-intervention, especially compared to classic German winemaking." Finally, Alex ends off by emphasising "Honestly, nothing about German viticulture or winemaking feels sacred to us. We just want to keep things simple - and we don't pull out old vines just because we think French selection massale Pinot Noir would do better. Maybe it would, but you'd be waiting forty years after planting to find out."
The comparison goes further, with Alex delving as to how today's Pinot-loving Baden was once in fact a land of white wines as a result of the region's difficult in achieving ripeness. It wasn't until the 70's that Spatburgunders began to take over alongside industrial farming that saw almost all pre-clonal vines ripped out, leaving behind only Baden clones. These Baden clones favoured volume and thus came in big bunches and grew vigorously, although also bringing with it downsides such as uneven ripening, disease vulnerability, and perhaps more importantly, had thick stems that didn't ripen and can't be used for whole bunch fermentation. Yet, Alex is quick to also state the reality of the matter, "We rarely rip vineyards out, as we love old vines and nothing we plant today will achieve the depth of those wines we're making from the older vines now, within the span of our potential active career. Even if the clones are shit. You can plant a fantastic selection massale from Burgundy, but for the first 20 years at least, it will be only young vines and so will be the wine."
And so getting into the vineyards, Wasenhaus works organically and takes a biodynamic approach even as they have forgone certification. For them, it is the intent that counts and less so the regime. They avoid the use of chemicals and have observed that with time, the vines would become less vigorous, something that the pair actually actively seeks to achieve. That said, they are once again realistic that "soils can eat a lot of shit quickly, but it takes a very long time for it to go away again," and thus acknowledge that the process would be a multi-decade one. Wasenhaus therefore uses compost and manure sparingly, and keep the vines under a layer of natural cover crop for most of the season. Once ready, the fruits are harvested by hand, with the Spatburgunder fermented spontaneously in open-top vats with varying portions of whole clusters, whilst the whites are whole cluster pressed and similarly fermented with native yeasts. Wasenhaus unusually chases what they call "a very turbid must with lots of solids", which they achieve by using very old mechanical screw press that allows for the skins and stems to get grounded up. This of course runs counter to most winemakers who prefer as clear a must as possible, and yet the pair believes that by adding these solids back into the ferment and elevage, they are able to better create a more conducive environment for natural fermentation that also holds properties of structure, texture, complexity and ageing potential. Extraction is kept gentle (although the Gutedel is given alittle bit more skin contact), with no pumps used, nor fining and filtered, with then the reds aged in small French oak barrels, whilst the whites go in large German Fuder barrels for two winters. Wasenhaus doesn't shy away from admitting the use of sulphur, explaining that so long as its use is minimal and justifiable, then any additions can in fact be a positive.
"Our wines show what Baden is when you don't manipulate too much. I mean - winemaking is making, it's in the name. If you don't step in at all, the result will be rot and vinegar, not wine. We always want to make wine that we like to drink ourselves. We're lucky we didn't need to fulfill any tradition or expectations, as we started everything from scratch, so we could just make wine in a way we saw fit to get the results we wanted. More or less every great wine in the world is made in a certain low-tech way. You don't need much to make it - in the best case, nothing but grapes, in an ideal world. But the world is not ideal. It's all about watching, tasting and making decisions - sometimes you just let it go and everything is fine, and sometimes it needs a little sulphur to help the wine stay on track and come out fine and elegant. [Ultimately] We want to make sure we’re always on a level where we can do everything ourselves, so we don’t need to hire more people. Wasenhaus isn’t about volume, but rather to grow in quality. Of course if we find nice new vineyards that really fit what we want to do, we won’t say no, but we won’t take vineyards on flat ground just for the purpose of making more wine… Slowly people started to look around and realise: Oh, there's Germany, growing Pinot Noir for at least a thousand years, on limestone, and at prices you can still afford."
At the end of the day, Wasenhaus may be a decade in but Alex and Christoph have demonstrated a laser-like precision in how they want to define their work - old vines, good soils, minimal intervention. They paint a clear ethos: this is not Burgundy's Pinot Noir, this is Baden's Spatburgunder through and through.
With all that said, let's get down to trying Wasenhaus' flagship single varietal Spatburgunder!
Let's go!
Wine Review: Wasenhaus Spatburgunder Landwein
2023 Vintage. 100% Spatburgunder.
Wasenhaus' flagship entry cuvee, this comes from fruit from sandy and loess soils, that is then fermented mostly destemmed, with 30% whole bunch, spontaneously with natural yeasts in open top vats. Fermentation runs for 15-18 days, with the wine aged in used French oak barrels for 14 months.
Tasting Notes
Colour: Garnet
Aroma: It opens eclectically umami and rustic, with bouillon cubes and animal hide, which then lets up to reveal a richer, more perfumed tone of rose petals and dark cherries, wafted by an element of green bellpeppers. It's alittle stemmy too, with then a padding of minerality, of spring water that runs underneath.
Taste: Medium-bodied here, it's plush and creamy, showing good richness and tension. It's filled in with supple and rich, yet fresh and almost crunchy, chunks of dark cherries, red currants, cranberries and crushed raspberries. Zingy, tart, the acidity is bright yet light, and the tannins are firm but slick. It's then garnished by lemon peels, green bellpeppers and that umaminess of bouillon cubes.
Finish: It takes a more candied turn even with the persistent tartness, with strawberries and cream lollies reminiscent of alpenliebe, cherry candies, and also pomegranates and cranberries. A seamless finish, with then those rustic and umami bits of animal hide and bouillon cubes once again, and now a little bit of green leafyness of fresh tomatoes that comes through.
My Thoughts
This came through with more character and polish than most Spatburgunders I've tried, it shares much of the same profile yet here where it shines is in the execution. It's bolder and more forward, and with more balance and integration. It opens initially alittle divisive, but with time develops to quite a perfume, really rustic and at the same time showing great minerality and lift, hoisting up the hefty and richer fruits. On the palate, there's tension and acidity, the tannins firm yet already slick. It's crunchy yet creamy at the same time, with really interesting garnishes of lemon peels that again give it that hit of really fresh and beautiful aromatics. Yet, the finish is where I was completely hooked - that candied and creamy bit of red fruits and creamy was a textural and sensational wonderment! I found it strikingly much like alpenliebe candies, and when combined with that rusticity, made for such an evocative and idyllic profile. Really fresh, flavour forward, and in many ways understatedly polished and elegant!
Kanpai!
@111hotpot
