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Forgeurac
A jazz musician and a soil scientist meet while studying in Geisenheim. They both share an obsession: Forgeurac and the question of whether German Pinot Noir can taste like Burgundy. Since 2015, Marco Pfliehinger and Uwe Lange have been making wines in St. Leon-Rot that answer this question - radically handcrafted, without machines. The cellar under an old forge gives the project its name: forge plus the ending of French appellations.
More about Forgeurac
From double bass to basket press
Uwe Lange played the cello and jazz double bass for years and worked as a music lecturer. At the age of thirty, he changed instruments: he studied viticulture in Geisenheim, where he met Marco Pfliehinger, a soil scientist who had just written about Terroir influences on ageing shades with a doctorate. Both had worked in Burgundy - Uwe as a Demeter inspector, Marco as a geologist. The idea: Why does Pinot Noir so rare in Germany with Burgundian finesse?
They found the answer in plots of land that nobody wanted. Steep terraces in Bühlertal that no tractor can reach. Weathered granite in the Riegelberg. Shell limestone in the Kraichgau, where the floor smells of celery and carrots.
Cellar under the old smithy
The wine cellar is located under Uwe's house in St. Leon-Rot, in a Vaults from the 17th century - once the village smithy. Here, the wines mature in used barriques, are corked by hand and bottled using gravity and hoses. Pumps, filters, tractors: none of this exists at Forgeurac. The 2.5 hectares are cultivated entirely by hand, according to biodynamic principles.
At six in the morning, Uwe stirs the horn silica preparation, as he has seen a hundred times as a Demeter inspector. The grapes go into open fermentation vats and are pressed on an antique basket press. Spontaneous fermentation, spontaneous malolactic fermentation, no fining, no filtration.
Terroir instead of cliché of origin
Franz Keller The Kaiserstuhl and other top producers in Baden have long shown that the region is capable of more than just pleasing red wines. Forgeurac takes this idea further: the wines should be taste like their soil, not like their origin. The Angel Rock brings granite minerals from terraces at 350 metres. The Riegelberg is sparser, more austere. In the Baden country wine red several layers merge into a drinkable entry.
Stubbornness as a programme
Marco and Uwe describe their wines as wilful and stubborn - just like themselves. Henri Jayer remains the role model, not German mainstream. The Pinot Noirs from Forgeurac never taste German, they both say. They taste of granite, of shell limestone, of the morning at six when the preparation is stirred. Like two musicians who have found a new instrument.