Summary
Weingut Wöhrle in Lahr is something like the green conscience of Baden's Breisgau: back in 1991 – when organic viticulture was still dismissed as a fad – Hans Wöhrle converted the formerly municipal estate entirely to organic farming. Today his son Markus Wöhrle and Markus's wife Tanja run the estate, which farms around 18 hectares in some 60 parcels on the Schutterlindenberg. More than 80% of the area belongs to the Pinot family – Spätburgunder, Grauburgunder, Weißburgunder, Auxerrois and Chardonnay – and that is exactly what Wöhrle is known for: precise, dry Pinots from VDP-classified sites such as Herrentisch, Gottsacker and the solely owned Kirchgasse.
History
The story of the estate does not begin with a winemaking dynasty but with a bold decision: in 1979 Hans and Monika Wöhrle leased the municipal Weingut der Stadt Lahr. Hans Wöhrle was actually a businessman who had only grown vines on the side until then – now he reorganised the estate from the ground up.
The second major turning point came in 1991: Wöhrle converted the entire vineyard area to organic viticulture and had it certified. In southern Baden that was pioneering work at the time; most of his colleagues considered organic farming in the vineyard a risk that would never pay off. In 1997 the family finally bought the estate from the town.
In 2002 his son Markus Wöhrle joined the business. He had studied in Geisenheim and had previously spent several years at the top Palatinate estate Müller-Catoir – under the legendary cellar master Hans-Günter Schwarz, whose school of precision and purity can still be tasted in the Wöhrle wines today. Since the 2013 vintage Markus and Tanja Wöhrle have been running the estate under their own responsibility; in 2014 the unwieldy name ‘Weingut der Stadt Lahr’ finally became Weingut Wöhrle.
Location & Terroir
Lahr lies in the northern Breisgau, where the Black Forest runs out into the Upper Rhine plain. The estate's vineyards are spread across around 60 parcels on the Schutterlindenberg, a ridge that rises above the town as a foothill of the Black Forest. The slopes face south and south-west and benefit from one of the warmest climates in Germany – ideal for Pinot varieties, which ripen reliably here without losing their freshness.
The soils are the real asset: loess and loess-loam over underlying lime marl and calcareous conglomerate rock. They are deep and fertile, store water well and give the wines their typical combination of richness and structure. Because the estate has worked without herbicides or synthetic fertilisers for more than 30 years, the vineyard soils are alive and rich in humus – for the Wöhrle family the most important basis for wines with a character of their own.
Style & Philosophy
At Wöhrle one simple principle applies: viticulture only in harmony with nature. The estate works to the criteria of the Ecovin association, keeps the vineyards green-covered, does without synthetic pesticides and relies on an intact ecosystem in the vineyard. Intensive manual work on the vines – canopy management, yield reduction, selective harvesting – lays the groundwork for a cellar in which as little as possible is interfered with.
Stylistically the wines are clear, dry and precise. The white Pinot family – Weißburgunder, Grauburgunder, Auxerrois and Chardonnay – comes across taut and mineral, with ripe fruit but no heaviness; the top wines mature in wood without the barrel dominating the fruit. Spätburgunder makes up around a third of production and is built for elegance and fine tannins rather than power – a Baden Pinot Noir that makes the limestone soils of the Schutterlindenberg tangible.
The wines follow the four-tier VDP classification: estate wines as the entry point, village wines from Lahr, wines from the Erste Lage and finally the Grosse Gewächse from the Grosse Lage sites.
Notable Sites & Wines
The top of the range comes from four classified sites on the Schutterlindenberg:
- Herrentisch – VDP.Grosse Lage, the estate's flagship site for Spätburgunder and Chardonnay, limestone-driven and warm
- Kirchgasse – VDP.Grosse Lage in the sole ownership of the Wöhrle family, source of Grosse Gewächse from Weißburgunder and Spätburgunder
- Gottsacker – VDP.Grosse Lage, likewise the origin of Grosse Gewächse
- Lahrer Kronenbühl – VDP.Erste Lage, the basis for the Erste Lage wines and the village wines from Lahr
Alongside the Pinots, Riesling, Gelber Muskateller and Rieslaner provide a small, aromatic counterpoint in the range. For a first taste, the village wines from Lahr are well worth it: they show the Wöhrle style – freshness, purity, limestone – at a very fair price.
Awards
Wöhrle has been one of the most reliable addresses in Baden for years. The major German wine guides rate the estate consistently highly: Eichelmann lists it with four and a half out of five stars, Vinum and Falstaff with four stars, Gault&Millau with three and a half grapes. In 2020 Vinum also included the estate in its ‘Unique Wineries of the World’ series. At the Golden Grape Awards, Weißburgunder, Spätburgunder and Grauburgunder recently took several gold medals in the premium category. The greatest achievement, however, is a different one: Wöhrle has shown that organic viticulture and top quality have not been a contradiction in Baden since 1991.
