Germany "From Berlin to Frankfurt" 2023 (Saale Unstrut, Sachsen, Franken, Württemberg) by ombiasy WineTours took place from Monday, June 19, 2023 to Thursday, June 29, 2023. 

After visiting Weingut Born

Vineyard Tour, Cellar Tour and Tasting at Weingut Born in Salzatal-Höhnstedt, Saale-Unstrut, with Elisabeth and Günter Born - Germany "From Berlin to Frankfurt" 2023 (Saale Unstrut, Sachsen, Franken, Württemberg) by ombiasy WineTours

a member of the Breitengrad 51 Association, the group of Saale-Unstrut leading producers, 

we went to Weingut Herr & Frau Lüttmer, a tiny, artisan natural wine producer with a total annual production of 200 to 400 cases. 

Weingut Herr & Frau Lüttmer wines used to be available in the US through vom Boden, but they no longer work together. Klaus Lüttmer explained that demand for his wines in Germany is strong. A lot of his production is sold directly through the online shop, in Berlin and hipster wine bars around the country.  

The 2020 Pinot S Herr Lüttmer, for example, is available at the winery for Euro 39.

Weingut Herr & Frau Lüttmer

Klaus Lüttmer: With lots of enthusiasm and passion in our luggage we city dwellers travelled the wine regions to find our luck in viticulture. As career changers with plenty of ideas we were looking for suitable vineyards. Italy, Mosel, Hessen?,.. not really around the corner from Berlin where we live. After two years of searching, we discovered 1 acre on the Weischützer Nussenberg vineyard in the northern Saale-Unstrut wine region which had been fallow for some time. Perfect location! Good climatic conditions made it possible to plant red grape varieties. In 2008 we planted Blauer Frühburgunder (early ripening Pinot Noir variety) - Pinot Noir Précoce- on the shell limestone. We focus on quality instead of quantity. To bring back balance into the soil we use conventional but also alternative methods. Growth, the canopy, the fruit, everything is regularly checked by us and we work entirely manually.

Today they also own 1.5 acres in the Vitzenburger Schlossberg, a very steep vineyard with an inclination of 40 – 65%, which they recultivated and planted with Riesling and Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce). Pinot Noir Précoce is their baby, a diva and a lot of attention needs to be paid to the grape to make a great wine. The Lüttmer wines regularly get awards form acclaimed wine critics such as Stuart Pigott, the British/German wine critic for James Suckling.

New York Wine Diary: Day 4 – Welcome to Urban Wine Life at “Château Lüttmer” in Berlin! (Stuart Pigott 2016)

Here is an interesting write up by Stuart Pigott from 2016 about Weingut Herr & Frau Lüttmer. He wrote it when he was based in New York City and German wine importer Vom Boden was in the process of starting to import Weingut Herr & Frau Lüttmer wines. As Klaus told me during our visit, Vom Boden and the Lüttmers have discontinued their cooperation recently.

Stuart Pigott:“The urb it orbs,” wrote James Joyce, and that’s oh so very true of wine, at least since the Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands in 1402 and the Portuguese discovery of Madeira in 1419. Wine growing is a thoroughly rural pursuit that during the 21st century has counterintuitively made a strong connection with cities right around the globe. Urban wineries are now nothing new, but it would be hard to find a more grittily urban winery than that hardly of Klaus and Christiane Lüttmer in the very unfancy Wedding district of Berlin. It is solidly blue collar/working class with a high proportion of immigrants, most of them Turkish. This is not what most middle class white people would consider an ideal place for their kids to grow up, although artists and other creative types long ago discovered the combination of low rents and good mass transportation infrastructure. I did that back in the spring of 1994 when I moved there for a stay of almost five years (thanks again to the developer of that building, Johannes Schwarz!) Likewise, the Winzerei Lüttmer is not trying to be cool, rather to make the best possible wine from a challenging vineyard location and to make a modest living from that undertaking.

I have a special connection to the Lüttmers and their wines because I often stay with them when I’m in Berlin. On top of that Klaus Lüttmer, a film cutter and editor for the RBB and Deutsche Welle stations in Berlin, also took those responsibilities – as time went on he took on more and more responsibilities, until he was also the producer – for my 65 minute movie Watch Your Back: The Riesling Movie (Part 1). He’s also the one who does the hard work of winemaking, while Christiane concentrates on the vineyards. There’s therefore no way that I’m claiming any regular grade family pack size journalistic objectivity with regard to either of this husband and wife team, and they wouldn’t claim to be unbiased about me either. We know each other far too well for that, but that is the whole point of Gonzo journalism: to know your subject as well as the back of your hand.

Let’s start with the facts. Winzerei Lüttmer, as they call their micro-winery, effectively began its existence with the planting of 0.5 hectare / 1.25 acres in Weischutz in the Saale-Unstrut region (in the Ex-East Germany) in the spring of 2008. The grape variety was Frühburgunder an early-ripening mutation of Spätburgunder a.k.a. Pinot Noir. A couple of years ago they planted a further 0.6 hectare / 1.5 acres half with Riesling and half with Spätburgunder in Vizenburg (in the same region). That might not sound like much, but these are steeply sloping vineyards, think Mosel Valley steep and rocky and backbreaking vineyard cultivation work. So far the barrels used to mature the Lüttmers’ Frühburgunder were all purchased used from the famous Rebholz estate in Siebeldingen/Pfalz, but a 600 liter / 158 gallon neutral cask from the top Austrian cooperage Stockinger has just been added for the 2016 vintage. 2010 was the first Fürburgunder red wine vintage and the first small crop from the new vineyard is expected this year. That makes it a seriously long-term project rather than just a hobby or a route to hippdom.

Good as the first vintages were, the 2014 wines are a watershed and by far the most exciting reds I ever tasted from the wine regions of the Ex-East Germany. After having harvested very late in 2013 to get high ripeness in spite of the poor fall weather the Lüttmers took the risky step of moving forward the date for the 2014 harvest forward with the goal of getting a wine with more freshness. The results of this seemingly small stylistic change were spectacular, as if a photograph that had been slightly fuzzy was suddenly in sharp focus and the scene it depicted therefore recognizable for the first time (there are two wines, a regular bottling and a richer reserve one called “S” for selection, bottlings, because it is a barrel selection). At first I found it hard to reconcile this super-elegant and subtle wine with the non-designer cosiness of the Lüttmers apartment that is also sometimes my eccentric home in Berlin. Maybe there is an odd connection though, because both strike me as being radically alive in a totally unpretentious manner. For that reason, and because she is depicted on one of their new labels that way, I chose a photograph of Christiane Lüttmer smoking a cigarette to give you an idea what it’s like at what I call “Château Lüttmer”. That image on the label has already seriously shocked some people in the Berlin wine scene, but as I said at the beginning none of this is a pose, rather it’s all true to their everyday life in the vineyard and at their home in Berlin.

The final photo shows Fritzi, perhaps the most important member of the Lüttmer pack and the source of much of the emotional glue that holds this most unusual trio, or perhaps I should say quartet, because I’m now a part-time member of the pack! By the way, although I know Château Lüttmer like the back of my hand I have to admit that I’ve never seen the vineyards except in photos (of precision hand-cultivated rows of vines resembling the best manicured vineyards in Burgundy). Fritzi is rather upset about that and if I don’t solve that problem soon I think he’ll give me the cold shoulder in the future!

The Lüttmer wines are still quite difficult to get, but that will change fast as the 2014s make their way into the market. That word also refers to NYWC (New York Wine City) where Vom Boden (Stephen Bitterolf) is the importer, and they are about to arrive. Be prepared to be amazed!

Arriving

Vineyard

We took a look at the Vitzenburger Schlossberg, which is planted with Riesling and Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce).

Tasting

We tasted 5 wines including a Pet Nat.

Bye-bye

Thanks Klaus for a wonderful tasting of your impressive wines.

Germany "From Berlin to Frankfurt" 2023 (Saale Unstrut, Sachsen, Franken, Württemberg) by ombiasy WineTours (Released and Forthcoming Postings)

Announcement: Exciting ombiasy Wine Tours in 2023

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Lunch at Restaurant/ Weingut Vincenz Richter in Meissen 

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Tasting at Niche Producer Weingut Seufert in Iphofen, Franken, with Laura Seufert

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Light Lunch at Restaurant Rose in Bretzfeld-Blitzfeld, with Owner/ Chef Willi Carle

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