Wine estates

Making wine is both our profession and passion at the same time. We filled our first bottles in1973 and applied the label with the fox which soon became our trademark and logo. For old friends of our wines and for many wine connoisseurs across the world this label stands for a very distinctive type of wine of uncompromising quality.

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Giving every wine its own distinctive character is an art which we pursue with passion. We are fascinated by the task of making every single one of the many aspects of the wine’s origin, stone and ground, warmth and cold, wood and stainless steel accessible to the senses when drinking the wine.

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The estate sells the wines from the 20 hectares of vines it cultivates around Birkweiler. With 38% Riesling, 17% Spätburgunder (pinot noir) and 15% each of Weissburgunder (pinot blanc) and Grauburgunder (pinot gris) it is easy to see the priorities of the Gies-Düppel estate.

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We are at pains to work with Nature in the vineyard. This is the only way that quality can start in the vine itself. We emphasise sustainability when caring for the soil so that its strength is conserved – also for future generations and vines.

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We are on course. If we are using a nautical metaphor there is a good reason. The ship in question is our “Goldstück“. The voyage has started; the ship has a favourable wind and is cutting through a gentle swell and a sunny breeze. The course is right, the mood on board is good and the crew is eagerly poised for new destinations and challenges. And there is plenty of wine under the keel!

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Thomas Siegrist was intent on making natural wines. Wines which knew where they were coming from. Wines with character and uniqueness. This is why he concentrated on making wines in barriques – and exposed himself to vehement protests in the German wine world. We should all be grateful that he stood his ground. Thomas Siegrist is one of the founders of the German Barrique Forum. Since those early days the process customarily used elsewhere for making the best wines is not only permitted in Germany but is also highly regarded.

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The KNIPSER family has been living in Laumersheim since 1876. They had a mixed farm here, something which is still typical for the region. Fruit and arable crops were cultivated as well as vines, and the wines made on the farm were sold to the wine trade while still in the barrel.

Heinz Knipser was one of the first vine growers in the region to bottle his own wines and sell them directly to private customers and restaurants, something he started in 1948. Early in the 1980s his son, Werner Knipser, converted the farm to 100% wine production. Since that time production has been continuously increased and intensified.

The present owners, Volker and Werner Knipser, started to mature some of their wines in barriques in the middle of the 1980s; they increased the proportion of red wine and when they were replanting they concentrated on classic regional and international varieties from the best clones. Yields are well under the average for the area and come close to those of the best international producers. This insistence on quality was rewarded in 1993 by their admission to the “Verband der deutschen Prädikatsweingüter VDP”, the association of quality wine producers.

Werner Knipser’s oldest son, Stephan, became a joint owner of the estate in 2005. His younger sister, Sabine, has also been working on the estate except for some interruptions while she travelled abroad.

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