Prädikat Wine Estates welcome three new members

The decision to welcome all those new members is not only based on the steadily improving quality that could have been observed for years but, too, the vintners’ strong commitment to the maintenance of the variety of wines and of vineyards that are difficultly to cultivate as well as the promotion of the profession. Here we would like to introduce these wineries to you:

BORIS KRANZ WINERY: In 2006, the skills and devotion of Boris Kranz, Kranz winery/palatinate, were rewarded by welcoming him to the VDP palatinate talent-promoting program. Since 1990, Boris Kranz has been the cellar-master responsible for the vinification in his parents’ winery. Now the change of generations has been completed; since, he manages the winery together with his wife Kerstin. Boris Kranz is as well vice president of the wine-growers association of palatinate. There have been made efforts for decades to have the Ilbesheimer Kalmit officially acknowledged as a separate vineyard, and it was thanks to Boris Kranz that this could be achieved in 2008. Those efforts have paid for themselves because the mineral Riesling wines and the juicy pinot bianco wines of this vineyard have earned him many prizes as far, and they enjoy as well very great popularity with consumers.

MARGRAF VON BADEN WINERY: The 2011 wine is the first one that is allowed to label the capsules of all the wines from the winery’s premises with the traubenadler (VDP logo, a stylized eagle with a cluster of grapes). The premises are Staufenberg castle (Durbach, Ortenau), Salem castle (Salem, Lake Constance) and Rheinburg castle (Gailingen, Lake Constance); they consist of a total of 135 hectares and, thus, they are of the biggest privately run wineries in Germany. In the Gault Millau guide, the winery has three grapes, and the wine guide of the Feinschmecker honours the winery for its “good to very good wine quality”. On the Lake Constance premises, the winery rather focusses on elegant, filigree white and rosé wines, whereas in Gailingen, the focus is on burgundy grapes and sauvignon blanc grapes. The Staufenberg castle winery is famous for its mineral Rieslings and powerful pinot noirs. In all wines, the focus is on their origin and the region’s typical characteristics.

Since 2012 new member of Prädikat Wine Estate (VDP) Winery Markgraf von Baden

Since 2012 new member of Prädikat Wine Estate (VDP) Winery Heitlinger GmbH

HEITLINGER GMBH WINERY: The top wine estates are also happy to welcome the Heitlinger winery and the Ravensburg fortress winery, two ancient VDP founding members from the Kraichgau region, which, since the change of ownership and the fusion in 2009, belong together; the new winery is called Weingut Heitlinger GmbH (Heitlinger winery ltd.). The passion for viticulture has more or less been passed on to Claus Burmeister, the winery’s executive, by his father, who used to be the manager of the Ravensburg fortress wine estate. He used to work on a voluntary basis in the VDP regional board until, in 2009, the wineries fused and, thus, the Ravensburg fortress winery was no longer a VDP member. Burmeister is aware of the importance of tradition in viticulture, but this is no reason for him not to interpret wines in a creative manner. The sun together with the the keuper soils (late Triassic soil out of chalk and clay) that are rich in minerals yield to the wine estate extraordinary cuvees from Riesling, pinot bianco and pinot noir grapes. (red.yoopress)