VDP.ESTATE
BRÜDER DR. BECKER

VDP:What is so special about your winery?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: We have been following the path of organic viticulture for 40 years now. We will stick to it because  it is our responsibility and future. The winery is our life, our home. It is our work, our hobby and our leisure time spent with people who work, celebrate, share time and conversations with us. It is a place that has roots that hold us. The winery is as old as the village and it has developed like the village. Each generation has contributed to what it is today. This can be seen particularly well in the wine cellar. Together with our employees, trainees and interns, we form constantly changing communities. It is important to us to be an open house and winery family comprised of different people and nationalities. Our friends and customers emphasize the hospitable atmosphere and authenticity of our winery.

VDP:What is your winery philosophy?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: The appreciative work with the soil and with the people who belong to our farm – in biodynamic agriculture we speak of the “farm organism”. We are interwoven with our landscape, the terroir of our vineyards, the local traders and the customers who love our wines. A direct path leads from the natural wines of the beginning of the 20^th century to the VDP and to organic cultivation. Today, this leads to our new or “old” product line PURE, a modern Vin Naturel.

VDP:For what wine style do you aim?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: The basic direction and framework for our wines are determined by vineyard locations and soils. We support these basic preconditions through our work during the harvest and vinification in the cellar. Our style is filigree, elegant, multi-layered and produces clear, rather quiet wines. In the 30 years that we have been evolving the winery, we have learned how different and self-sufficient our wines are. Since its approval in the 1940s, Scheurebe has been cultivated at our estate. The Silvaner is earthy and honest, the Riesling incredibly exciting as the mirror of terroir and the Spätburgunder brilliant, peaceful and deep.

VDP:Which of your wines would you recommend to someone who does not yet know your winery – as an introduction, so to speak?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: Of course, our tasting package of Scheurebe, Silvaner and Riesling!

VDP:Of which wine are you particularly proud?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: Of the wine VDP. ORTSWEIN Ludwigshöhe Silvaner and its vineyard. Our great-grandfather named this vineyard Ludwigshöhe Moder Marienhöhe. It has pure loess soil and is located mid-slope with a 25 percent gradient that opens to the east. The vines are more than 45 years old, each one unique. Together they form a great whole and yield a deep, playful Silvaner that lingers on the palate for a long time

VDP:Why did you become a vintner?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: Because of the life on our parents’ farms and the physical agricultural work. Being a farmer is simply something fulfilling. In addition to this, winegrowers are also globetrotters! We are firmly connected with the region, the place, our vineyards – and yet often outside in the cities, in Europe and we get to experience different cultures and so many people.

VDP:Do you have role models?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: Our parents, teachers, colleagues ... life is full of inspiration, as is the recognition one experiences.

VDP:What are your next goals?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: At one of the advanced training seminars on biodynamic viticulture, we were enthusiastic about a lecture on “sovereign farmers”. So, our goal is to further develop the sovereign winegrower within us.

VDP:How do you combine tradition and innovation?

Müller/Pfeffer-Müller: With curiosity, wine-growing skills, open eyes and ears and, of course, wine tasting. Our Rheinhessen grape varieties have accompanied the wine estate from the very beginning.