“AN OWNER-OPERATED VINEYARD FOR OVER 400 YEARS IS A RARITY AND AN IMMEASURABLE TREASURE, ESPECIALLY IN THIS DAY AND AGE.”
BETTINA BÜRKLIN-VON GURADZE SPEAKS ABOUT HER WINE AND WINE ESTATE IN WACHENHEIM
Dr. Bürklin-Wolf
Weinstraße 65
67157 Wachenheim a.d.W.
Phone | +49 (0)6322/95330 |
---|---|
Fax | +49 (0)6322/953330 |
bb@buerklin-wolf.de |
Office Hours
Mo-So 11.00-18.00Owner
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze
Cellarmaster
Nicolla Libelli
Wine Area
84,70 acres
Grape Variety
82% Riesling, 6% Spätburgunder, 7% Pinot Blanc sowie 5% andere Rebsorten
VDP: What is so special about your winery?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: We have been a large, owner-operated winery for generations and over 400 years. That alone is a rarity, especially in this day and age. It is also an immeasurable treasure that we want to guard and preserve. We see ourselves as the stewards of our forefather’s heritage for our children and hopefully many more generations to come. Our historical buildings are certainly worth seeing – the historical wooden barrel cellar, the large English garden landscape and the extensive park with more than 200-year-old trees.
VDP: What is your winery philosophy?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: The valuable heritage of 15 top vineyard sites, which are among the most treasured Riesling sites of the world, requires careful handling. Our top sites were classified for the first time in 1994 into a 4-tier hierarchy, similar to the Burgundy classification system. This helped put us back on the world stage of wine. Since then, names such as KIRCHENSTÜCK, JESUITENGARTEN, UNGEHEUER and PECHSTEIN have made a triumphal march, once again achieving positioning similar to old wine lists at the beginning of the 20th century. Today, Dr. Bürklin-Wolf Rieslings are again internationally accoladed, highly sought, world-class wines.
“THE RELIABLE AND ENTHUSIASTIC TEAM, WHICH HAS BEEN GUIDING THE FATE OF THE WINERY TOGETHER WITH US FOR MANY YEARS, IS THE CORNERSTONE OF OUR GREAT SUCCESS.”
VDP: For what wine style do you strive?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: We have cultivated all our vineyards biodynamically for over a decade. Our sustainable vineyard cultivation results in top Rieslings that express their individual origins and that possess superb ageing potential. We speak of ‘slow wines’, meaning that we give them all the time in the world to evolve from grapes to a top wine, with as little human intervention as possible. This respect for the natural course of nature logically results in later market release for the wines and is also a guarantee for our customers that they are purchasing wines that are ready to drink, yet can also be stored and matured. Nature and thus also the wines thank us in the form of a large archive of matured top Rieslings, which we have stored in our old wine cellar since 1994. Wines are allowed to reach perfection in this cellar before we entrust them to our customers at their perfect drinking peak.
Wachenheim
Riesling, trocken
VDP.ORTSWEIN
VDP: Which of your wines would you recommend to someone who does not yet know your winery – as an introduction, so to speak?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: Our Riesling VDP.ORTSWEINE: Wachenheim, Deidesheim or Ruppertsberg.
VDP: Of which wine are you particularly proud?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: Of our VDP.GROSSE LAGE® KIRCHENSTÜCK Riesling G.C., undisputedly one of the greatest dry Rieslings in the world. It is very popular and therefore also very limited!
VDP: Why did you become a vintner?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: To successfully preserve our 400-year-old winery tradition for future generations, to preserve the cultural landscape of wine and to make people happy with our wines.
VDP: Do you have role models?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: The top Burgundian wineries and how they respect with origin, location and nature.
VDP: What are your next goals?
Bettina Bürklin-von Guradze: We want to constantly improve the quality of our wines while taking into account the biodynamic method of cultivation. We seek to make the fascination of ripeness tangible for our customers in our vinotheque and allow our top wines even more time to mature before releasing them on the market.
Pictures: © VDP.Weingut Bürklin-Wolf