Claus Schneider

There is nothing more gratifying in our line of work then finding good people making exceptional wine. The Schneider family are as genial and gracious a bunch of people as you could hope to meet and they make wines that are simply revelatory in their quality. Son Johannes, an old soul despite his tender years, has essentially taken over direction of the estate from his father Claus, and younger brother Christoph is fully involved, too. Most of their holdings are in the clay-and-limestone escarpment named Weiler Schlipf, butted right up against the Swiss border. The hallmarks of Schneider wines are purity and relaxation. The estate was recently hailed by the influential Gault-Millau magazine as being the single best value estate in all of Germany! In 2020, they started their formal conversion to organic certification, which will be accorded to them in 2022. The brothers have also developed a line of Natural Wines under the Haus Gupi label.

Producer:	Claus Schneider
Country:	Germany
Region:	Baden - Markgräflerland
Subregion:	Markgräflerland
City of Origin:	Weil am Rhein
Date Founded:	1892
Owner Name:	Claus Schneider
Vineyard Size:	13 HA
Total Annual Production:	80,000 bottles

Property History:

The estate was farmed as a mixed agricultural estate for generations. In the 1980s Claus Schneider changed the estate to beeing a wine producing business only. There remain still some orchards and farmland still worked by the family or leased to other farmers. In the last 30 years the wine producing area was doubled in size beeing today a total surface of 13ha. The winery is still located in the 18th century housing in the old center of the village. The two single vineyards farmed by the family are Weiler Schlipf and Ötlinger Sonnhole both located on the Tüllinger Hill which has a total vineyard area of 100 ha. The Sonnhole is a south oriented vineyard with purely clay soil. The Schlipf has a South-west orientation and clay / limestone soil. The wines from Schlipf are our most complex and structured wines suited for bottle aging.

Owner History:

Claus Schneider was educated in the winegrowers school of Weinsberg in Württemberg. He then quickly took over the estate from his father in the 1980s. Together with his wife Susanne they've been running the property for some 30 years. Since two years Johannes and Christoph are in charge of the business. Johannes studied 5 years of chemistry. He then worked on year in Burgundy at Domaine Rossignol-Trapet where he received a BTS diploma. After that he worked for 1 more year in France in Alsace / Domaine Boesch and the Minervois / Domaine Courbissac. After his studies of economics Christoph recently joined the winery. He is now pursuing a WSET 3 diploma and will continue with the Weinakademiker studies. Johannes is in charge of winemaking and the vinyard whereas Christoph is in charge of sales and the management of the property.