In the historic Kaiserstuhl, named after Emperor Otto III’s court from the 10th century, lies this years Gault-Millau ‘Winery of the Year’ Weingut Franz Keller. The area of Kaiserstuhl is characterised by its vulcanic origin and is known for its many rare minerals, which can be found predominantly in the cavaties of remaining vulcanic rocks. The vulcanic base of Kaiserstuhl is covered by a layer of Loess formed during the last Ice Age.
With this highly interesting and expressive underground, it should be no surprise that the terroir of the wines in Kaiserstuhl has a lot to say. And the Franz Keller winemakers firmly believe in terroir-driven wines. At the base of their philosophy rests the sound conviction that the best of wines starts in the vineyard – this is where the Keller wines come to life.
The winery is run by Fritz and his son Friedrich Keller and was founded in 1892. Fritz took over in 1990 from his father Franz Keller (1927-2007), who became known as an opponent of the large-scale land consolidation in the 1970s and 1980s and made a name for himself as an advocate for using barriques and for fully fermented dry wines.
The quality obsessed family own many of the lovely small, historic vineyards placed in terraces in Kaiserstuhl. The parcels are still tended by hand and carefully nurtured to bring out the flavour of the area. The aim is to show off each of their terraces in Kaiserstuhl and bring out the vineyards’ individual qualities. The volcanic soils and rather hot climate for Germany means that the wines get a distinct terroir-filled flavour.
Once the grapes are hand-picked, they go to the winery which uses gravitation methods. There they fully ferment their wines to provide bone-dry, barrique matured, complex and expressive wines from their two VDP Erste Lage; Oberbergener Bassgeige & Pulverbuck and six VDP Grosse Lage vineyards; Enselberg, Schlossberg, Kirchberg, Eichberg, Im Leh and Kähner. A wide variety of the typical burgundy varieties, such as Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir are produced here in addition to the typical German styles. And the French connection goes deeper than the grapes.
The family embraces the entire experience of enjoying life with wine and food, inspired by French living. ‘We make wine for food’ is Fritz Keller known to have said. He is not kidding, they own three restaurants; The traditional Winzerhaus Rebstock, the Michelin Starred Schwarzer Adler and the modern, International Kellerwirtschaft in their new winery from 2013.
Needless to say, the excellent restaurants are all well worth a visit, not just for the food and wine, but also the interior. The new winery is built straight into the hills and is an architectural pearl - Terraced, just like their vineyards.
In fact, Fritz Keller is so serious of wine and food, he has even driven it into the local football club; SC Freiburg. He is proud that his club is able to serve a proper wine and good food to every visitor, in which he also also plays a role as president of the football club. Food and wine is about people - and so is football, according to him. We met this lovely family at ProWein 2018 and this is how we scored their wines: