winery
winegrowing since 1723
FAMILY
We have been growing wine in our family for over 300 years - a tradition that characterises and commits us. What began as a farm with viticulture is now an artisan winery. Our winery house was built back in 1723 and was occupied by Jakob Kaltenbach, a wine merchant and farmer, and his family. In 1901, the winery received its name through the marriage of Alice Kaltenbach and Friedrich Schlumberger. Since then, it has been run from generation to generation: Hartmut and Hella Schlumberger took over in 1972, followed by Claudia Schlumberger-Bernhart and her husband Ulrich Bernhart in 2003. In 2020, the winery was given its current double name, and since 2022, daughter Johanna Bernhart has enriched the family business after studying viticulture and gaining experience at home and abroad. 10 hectares of vineyards are cultivated today, which means that we carry out all work steps ourselves and pay full attention to every vineyard, every parcel. From the vine to the bottle, we accompany every step ourselves.
The Markgräflerland
HOMETOWN
Our home region, the Markgräflerland in Baden, is a lovely area between Freiburg im Breisgau and Basel in Switzerland, in the south-west corner of Germany. Through the Burgundian Gate between the Vosges and the Jura, Mediterranean air flows through the Rhone and Saône valleys into the Rhine, ensuring Mediterranean temperatures. The soils in Laufen consist of Jura limestone with loess layers and offer optimal conditions for Chasselas and the Burgundy varieties that are our focus.
love of nature
VINEYARD
Our vines, vineyards and nature are our greatest assets. Sustainable viticulture, resource-conserving cultivation and the promotion of biodiversity are at the centre of our work, and we have consistently avoided the use of synthetic and chemical aids in the vineyards for over 15 years. Instead, we rely on greenery, flowering vineyards and hedges and trees at the edge of the vineyards, which create habitats for insects and birds. Close-to-nature cultivation brings us closer to the goal of ensuring that future generations can also make great wines on healthy soil, and in order to provide a framework for our natural working methods, we have been in the conversion phase to certified organic viticulture again since 2023.
A lot of handwork in the vineyards is a matter of course for us. We work with low yields and rely on 100% hand-picking to ensure that only perfectly ripe and healthy grapes find their way into the cellar.our classification is based on a clear philosophy: the closer the origin, the higher the quality. We have been a member of the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates (VDP) since 2010 and structure our wines and sparkling wines according to the four-level VDP classification.
Time for Origin
CELLAR
In the cellar we give the wines space to develop and show their origins. Each plot is vinified separately to preserve the character of each location.
Our single-vineyard wines are fermented spontaneously - with the vineyard's own yeast, with a little more sediment and warm. They are matured in small or large wooden barrels and stored on the yeast for a long time. This makes our wines naturally stable and they can be bottled unfiltered. Our estate wines often mature in stainless steel tanks, with a slightly cooler, controlled fermentation and at least six months on the full yeast. Nevertheless, there are no rigid rules in our cellar - whether spontaneous or controlled fermentation, stainless steel or wood, whole-bunch pressing or maceration time, we decide individually according to the needs of the vintage. We consistently avoid fining, sweetening and any kind of treatment. Our goal: always dry and natural wines that authentically reflect the character of their soil, their location and the vintage.