We also spoke to Rainer Schnaitmann, from his vineyards in Württemberg
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO CHANGE CAREER AND BECOME A WINEMAKER?
There was something in the air in the late 80s…
I met some very inspiring people from the
restaurant business, there were suddenly
exciting wines made by colleagues in the region,
certainly some romantic feelings and the idea to
create an own style as you hardly can do as an
architect - and as a now 20 years old man -
another view on our tradition of at least 600
years in Fellbach.
WHY DECIDE TO CHAMPION THE LEMBERGER GRAPE VARIETY?
My great treasure was a very old Pinot noir vineyard planted in the sixties in our Große Lage Lämmler. My first awards and beginning reputation I received from this single vineyard. At this time Austria was very successful with an extremely powerful type of Lemberger (in Austria it is called Blaufränkisch). While tasting Pinot and Lemberger/Blaufränkisch I got the impression that we are better in making Pinot Noir and we should leave Lemberger to the Austrians… I planted mostly Pinot Noir in our higher vineyards but kept the best Lemberger without taking it too seriously. Many things changed since this time. 2008/2009 we had the first surprisingly good Lemberger. We didn’t use new oak anymore, but instead bigger casks. We used whole bunch fermentation and almost no sulphur. The style has become very close to Pinot, very elegant, but more spicy. I learned that there must be a reason why our ancestors planted Lemberger and came into possession of some very good vineyards on the warm slopes of the Stuttgart suburbs with their soils of chalky gypsum marl. For me Over the last ten years it has been a way for me to start to an old story in a new way.
HOW HAS THE 2020 VINTAGE BEGUN FOR YOU, HAS THE WEATHER TO DATE THROWN YOU ANY UNUSUAL CHALLENGES IN THE VINEYARD?
We had a very mild winter with lots of water. In our region all winegrowers are skiers because the alps are so close, but this year it was a little poor…. March and April counteracted the beginning Corona crisis with Mediterranean weather conditions and water was already missing again. But after heavy rainfalls the ice saints did their job and we lost the crop of some vineyards…
HAS MAINTAINING ORGANIC CERTIFICATION IN THE VINEYARDS THROWN UP ANY UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES?
I changed to organic because I wanted to do it the best way and almost all my favourite colleagues did it, too. They told me all that there will be some problems during the first years, but I thought because my name is Schnaitmann it won’t hit me. Ok. It hit us also a little bit. some of the wines of the first organic years lack a bit fruit and bright freshness, they seemed to be very dry and showed no sense of humour. But they aged quite well and the last years we were - despite of some more time to spend – very happy with our decision and are looking ahead to install biodynamic culture on our 224 small pieces….
I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU PLAY MUSIC TO YOUR BARRELS IN THE CELLARS, WHAT MADE YOU INSTIGATE THIS AND DOES THE MUSIC VARY FROM SEASON TO SEASON? WHAT ARE THEY LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW ?
I constructed a new cellar in 2005. It’s beautiful, but at the beginning it was quite empty and I felt some anxiety in this underground hall. I was always playing music in the cellar but then I installed a HIFI system and the first piece played was Mozart’s c-minor mass. It is still the most played piece of music in the cellar but there is also a lot of classic piano, Jazz or favourite pieces like Keith Jarett’s “Köln concert”. I do not know if Riesling prefers Beethoven, Lemberger is on Rock n’ Roll or Pinot gets sour while listening to free jazz. That’s the reason we play the music which influences us the right way :-)
WHAT IMPACT HAS CORONAVIRUS HAD ON YOUR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, DO YOU MISS TRAVELLING AND ARE YOU EMBRACING ZOOM CALLS AND VIRTUAL TASTINGS?
Of course corona has caused a serious break in our international business. I like to travel but I must admit that I don’t miss noisy trade fair halls… I did several Zoom and other virtual tastings and was surprised how much fun I had! This will be part of our future but please visit us again!
FAVOURITE WINE FOR DRINKING RIGHT NOW AND WHY?
I am drinking a great 2018 Chardonnay made by a good friend of mine. Philipp Kuhn. We just recently made a Pinot noir for charity purpose together: half Pfalz (Palatine), half Württemberg. It was too cheap.
