Markus Schneider, Pfalz

Organic

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Markus Schneider
WEBSITE

The Individualist

Markus Schneider’s philosophy is that he doesn’t have one. He is passionate about what he does and produces wines that he likes to drink himself. In doing so, it is important to him not to copy other wine styles but to act individually. This young winemaker’s recipe for success lies purely and simply in this individuality coupled with quality. Ample evidence of the latter is provided by reduced quantities, manual harvesting, careful and gentle pressing and long maturing periods with no external influences on red wines filled in wooden casks. His white wines remain in contact with the fine yeast until shortly before bottling in order to achieve a complex aroma spectrum.

His wines are poured at the best places in Germany like Hotel Adlon and in many posh restaurants like for example in ‘Sansibar’ on the German Island ‘Sylt’, which gives an extra kick to the brand name and helped building the aura of a top newcomer estate. But this eye-candy marketing façade isn’t a bluff package because once you try the wines and get to know the estate you realize that there is lots of work, creativity and winemaking talent happening behind the scenes.

Markus Schneider strived towards building his own cuvées and, therefore, splitted all his vineyards by terroir characteristics before reassembling them (for red cuvées) or simply bottling them as single terroir wines (especially the whites). His reds clearly belong to the top league of Germanys red wines. Markus produces several very good cuvées, mixing classic bordelaise varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot with regional varietals such as St. Laurent and Portugieser.  His wines are simple, but each bottle is full of quality. There are many winemakers with the name Schneider in Germany, but only one Markus Schneider!