The Winemaker

I am a pleasure seeker and have always been on the lookout for that special taste. As a winemaker, I can fully live out this trait. I like my wines to be independent, direct and straightforward. Even when I was young, I was looking for an original wine that would combine the elegance and knowledge of today with the craft of winemaking and the understanding of nature from days gone by.

With these thoughts in mind, I founded my own winery in 2014, in the last year of my apprenticeship in winemaking. There I was able to implement all that is important for a sustainable and individual type of wine. And so, step by step, I moved away from the “classic” viticulture towards natural wines.

Daniel Schweizer mit einem Weinglas in der Hand

The Philosophy

“My wines are created
spontaneously: with a changing
character, depending on the
course of the year.“

The Philosophy

Natural wines are a passion. Instead of pushing the wine in a certain direction, it is allowed to develop itself. We rely on nature and work with all their circumstances. The wines are fermented spontaneously with natural yeasts from the environment and at no time their temperatures are artificially influenced. Thus, the external weather conditions are responsible for fermentation and maturation.

Every year, completely new wines are created, with a very individual characteristics and an individual taste that cannot be reproduced and that makes each vintage unique. Natural wines are pure wines. Wines with character. Edgy. Unconventional. Unadorned. These unique wines are bottled without filtration and fining agents.

“My wines are created
spontaneously: with a
changing character,
depending on the
course of the year.“

The Vineyards

“I like it alive
in my vineyards.
I focus on working
with nature,
not against it.“

The vineyards

The basis of our natural wines are flourishing and lively vineyards around Stetten am Heuchelberg, which are cultivated according to biodynamic principles. An airy and healthy soil is the heart of natural viticulture. This also includes appropriate cultivation. More than half of the land on the three-hectare vineyard is no longer cultivated with a tractor, but exclusively with horses or by hand. Only in an intact ecosystem vines can flourish without the need for additional artificial fertilisers and irrigation.

Illustration von einem Plus-Symbol, welches um 45 Grad rotiert wurde.

“I like it alive
in my vineyards.
I focus on working
with nature,
not against it.“

The Horses

Daniel Schweizer am Pflug in seinen Weinbergen

“Behind the plough
I feel every unevenness,
every stone and
every soil change
of my vineyard.“

Daniel Schweizer mit einem Pflug in der Hand. Neben ihm ein Kollege der die Zügel hält.

The horses in the vineyard

Based on the idea, to work as gentle as possible on the ground and to work ecologically, at some point the desire arose to involve horses in the work in the vineyard. What began as a project has been established since 2016, so that in more than half of the vineyards there is no tractor used but everything is managed by hand and hoof. Soil cultivation in these vineyards takes place the whole year round, with the help of horse and plough. The four-legged partners are also used during the harvest.

This type of cultivation gives us a much more direct relationship with the soil, we get to know it more intensively and we can cultivate it more gently. In the long term the entire farm is to be converted to horse work. Even though this type of cultivation is much more more time-consuming, the quality of the grapes confirms to us every year anew that this way is worthwhile.