VDP.ESTATE
RAINER SCHNAITMANN

„I LOVE BURGUNDY VARIETIES.“

RAINER SCHNAITMANN ON HIS WINES
AND HIS WINERY IN FELLBACH

Rainer Schnaitmann

Untertürkheimer Straße 4
70734 Fellbach

Phone+49 (0)711/574616
Fax+49 (0)711/5780803
eMailinfo@weingut-schnaitmann.de
Office Hours
Mo-Fr von 14 bis 18 Uhr und Sa von 9 bis 13 Uhr
Owner

Rainer Schnaitmann

Cellarmaster

Rainer Schnaitmann

Member Since

2006

Wine Area

25,50 acres

Grape Variety

26% Burgundersorten, je 15% Riesling & Lemberger, je 10% Trollinger, Merlot & Sauvignon Blanc sowie Cabernet Rebsorten

Geology

Gipskeuper, Sandsteinverwitterung, Mergel

Growing Areas

Württemberg

Sparkling Wine / Sekt
Sekterzeuger, VDP.SEKT.PRESTIGE
Memberships
Eco Certifications

VDP: What is special about your winery?

Rainer Schnaitmann: My family has been running the winery for at least 15 generations, but I only founded it under my own label in 1997. In 2006 it was the youngest winery ever to be included in the VDP!

Our sites on the edge of the Stuttgart basin and in the Rems valley have great potential with their soils of calcareous marl and sandstone weathering, the great differences in altitude in the countershadow of the Black Forest and the classic grape varieties Pinot, Riesling and Lemberger. This is what my team and I want to make a little bit more visible every year in competition with our great neighbours and VDP colleagues.

By Württemberg standards, we have an above-average proportion of Burgundy grape varieties. Because I love them and feel I can handle them well. In 2008/2009 we were suddenly surprised by the Lemberger, which I had already wanted to leave to the Austrians before. We do not use new wood anymore and bigger barrels. We ferment whole grapes and hardly use any sulphur.

The style is now close to Pinot, very elegant, but spicier. So there must have been a reason for our ancestors to have planted Lemberger! I came into possession of some very good sites, especially from very hot vineyards in the suburbs of Stuttgart on heavy, calcareous gipskeuper. It seems to me that we have been able to retell an old story for ten years! And I have even grown fond of the long-scorned Trollinger as a natural wine again.

"IT SEEMS TO ME THAT WE CAN RETELL AN OLD STORY AT THE LEMBERGER!"

VDP: What is your winery philosophy?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  Omitted. Give time. Trust your gut feeling. Stay awake and alert. The whole thing "by fair means", i.e. ecologically certified and increasingly influenced by biodynamics.


VDPWhat style of wine do you strive for?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  What I find most impressive are wines of the most diverse origins and quality levels, where I don't even think about the style right away - because they are so independent. The combination of apparent opposites such as freshness and value, lightness and power, as you find in great Burgundy wines.


VDP: Which of your wines would you recommend to someone who doesn't know your winery yet - as an introduction, so to speak?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  Perhaps our cuvée "Grau.Weiss": Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris, partially fermented on the mash, from the calcareous gypsum skeuper and matured in half-barrels. A good example of the combination of strength and freshness and the winery style.

VDP: Which wine are you particularly proud of?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  The Pinot Noir from our over 50-year-old steep vineyards in the LÄMMLER <p>VDP.GROSSE LAGE&reg;<p> has put the Pinot from Württemberg on the map of connoisseurs.


VDP:  Why did you become a winemaker?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  After graduating from high school, I was quite sure I wanted to become an architect. Then came experiences in working in the catering trade and with my father in the vineyard. And the first exciting wines from my colleagues in the Rems Valley. First great wine experiences, also abroad. There was something in the air - and somehow I was not completely indifferent to tradition...

VDP:  Do you have role models, mentors?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  I have had many role models, always in individual areas of life. And I constantly meet new ones.


VDP:  What are your next goals?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  Even more concentration on what turns out to be essential, also in the vineyards. To sharpen the profile.


VDP:  How do you combine tradition and innovation?

Rainer Schnaitmann:  : 9 1. Thessalonians 5 "Check everything and keep the good". And speaking of the Greeks: panta rhei!

©2023

Photos: Peter Bender