MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN
I’m Christopher, a native of Mölsheim and have always been connected with my homeland. Is there actually a more beautiful place? Since I want to make wine, which dates back to 2012, it is my concern to extract the best from the given to me. However, since I did not know what was the best, there was only one way to find out what works and what does not. It began a year-long odyssey of experiments in the vineyard as well as in the cellar. I did the first spontaneous fermentation in 2012, the first oak barrel was occupied in 2013, the first orange wine and an unfiltered bottling was in 2014.
The wild and unknown has slowly begun to reveal a pattern. In 2015, the Rorschach butterfly was born. An abstract and yet natural symbol. Symbolic, it represents subjectivity in wine taste and experience. But for most, the motif is clearly a butterfly. You can’t trick nature. Over the years, it also became increasingly clear that the essence of the wines is their origin, the soil and the climat. The mountain shapes. The many experimental wines became a few, that speak the unadorned and fascinating language of limestone. Focus and precision on the origin in the wine is the main work of recent years. Less is more.
As an origin fanatic, I am in very good hands at the Battenfeld-Spanier and Kühling-Gillot wineries. I have already been working there as a cellar master since 2017 and am delighted with the wide range of opportunities. Often I use the sparse time I don’t spend in cellars or vineyards for mountain bike tours through the Palatinate Forest. Being from Zellertal means being both a Rhenish Hessian and a Palatine, and there is nothing I enjoy more than our great landscapes and way of life. This must be preserved. This is reflected in the vineyards. Something is sustainable if it is made for eternity. The soil in which the vine grows is our greatest treasure. In it and above it, it must be teeming with life. Working close to nature and preserving it is the key. With a twinkle in my eye, I refer to my viticulture as „Super-Dynamic.“ Humus building, dry farming, promoting soil and vine vitality, maintaining diversity, with constantly changing conditions is the challenge. Where there is life, there is also origin, and where there is origin, outstanding things can arise.
