From Kaiserstuhl wine farm to a signature style
The Landerer winery is located in Niederrotweil, a wine village on the Kaiserstuhl in Baden's Vogtsburg, nestled in a typical Kaiserstuhl corner farmstead amidst vineyards and orchards. In 1989, Thomas and Karin Landerer took over the business, gradually expanded the vineyard area, and laid the foundation for modern, quality-oriented viticulture. Their son Johannes grew up literally among the vines: at 17, he planted his first own vineyard with Sauvignon Blanc and experimented in the barren volcanic weathered rock to develop an independent Kaiserstuhl style for this grape variety.
After his training at the renowned Heger winery in Ihringen, stints in the Palatinate, in South Tyrol at the model estate Manincor, and further qualification as a technician for viticulture and oenology, Johannes worked in the family business starting in 2014. When his father Thomas passed away unexpectedly in 2016, he took over sole responsibility for viticulture and cellar management — and has since continued the family's life's work with a clear vision of what Kaiserstuhl wine can achieve.
Natural work in the vineyard, care in the cellar
With its volcanic weathered and loess soils as well as its warm, continental climate, the Kaiserstuhl offers one of Germany's most distinctive terroir foundations. The Henkenberg and Kirchberg sites in Oberrotweil, which shape the Landerer range, reflect this character directly. In the vineyard, the team relies on mechanical soil cultivation, natural cover cropping for humus formation, and conscious yield reduction through pruning and green harvesting. Hand-picking takes place in several passes — only fully ripe grapes enter the press.
In the cellar, Johannes Landerer works with patience: temperature-controlled fermentation protects the aromatics, and a portion of the wines matures in oak barrels — including Pinot Noir and selected single-vineyard wines. For the Gestühl line and individual white wines, the winery relies on spontaneous fermentation and full-lees aging in large wooden barrels, which gives the wines additional depth and textural density without masking the varietal character.
Pinot territory with outliers to the top
The lion's share of the approximately 22 hectares of vineyard area is occupied by Pinot Noir — it makes up more than half of the range. Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc follow with around 20 and 10 percent respectively. In addition, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Scheurebe, Muscat, and Syrah grow on the Kaiserstuhl soils, which gives the range a surprising breadth. Falstaff awarded Johannes Landerer four stars and certified that he has established himself at the top of the Kaiserstuhl wine scene with an unconventional but well-thought-out style. The white wines combine phenolic grip with minerality; the red wines show fruit-driven precision and sensitively extracted tannins. Anyone who drinks a Landerer for the first time quickly understands why this volcanic soil needs no comparison with other German wine-growing regions.
