Piri Naturel: Organic Is Not Enough

Besides having all these important things in common, I like to hang out with Christine aka Piri Naturel because she is incredibly good vibes. Down-to-earth, calmly determined, doing her own thing. Changing the world, one little agricultural initiative at a time.

There's something elfin about her, especially when she joyfully shows you around her lush, wild and diverse vineyards on the slopes surrounding her village of Burg Layen in the German region of Nahe (located roughly halfway between the more famed Mosel area and the city of Frankfurt). But she ain't no fairy, rather a proud farmer, and a vigneronne with both feet firmly on the ground and sure of her path – talk to Christine for a bit and you'll see that the Geisenheim wine school, wine jobs around the globe and the legacy of a family estate dating to 1781 are all there and put to very good use.

Ever the searcher for the personality of the winemaker in the wine, I see these qualities in Piri Naturel wines as well, of course. They're graceful, different and unmistakably lively, true wines of nature, while being super precise, pure, well built, delicious and happy to bless you with the pleasure of their company. Maybe they are made by a fairy tale being after all...

Words by Milan Nestarec & Lucie Kohoutová / Photos Lucie Kohoutová

You're featured in “Natural Trailblazers”, a second book by Camilla Gjerde that was just recently published – can you tease what is your chapter about?

Yes, very exciting! I feel honoured to be part of it. In this second book, Camilla focuses on growers and importers who follow their convictions and lead a way to climate friendly wine. The chapter where I am mentioned is about our agroforestry project with Piwi varieties. It's a new vineyard planting that I designed in a way that we integrate different kinds of trees, hedges and bushes in between the vines, to create a vineyard-ecosystem that is – hopefully – more stable and needs less human interference. We started last winter, there is still more planting to do.

We really need to tackle climate change at its root cause, not its symptoms. There is no point in putting irrigation in our vineyards. It might help for a short amount of time, but in the long term, it won't address the problem – water is also a finite resource.

A fellow tree fan! What was your reasoning behind this project?

As we all know, trees save CO2. But they do way more: trees work as a natural air conditioning, they cool down the microclimate, they give shade, they bring different rooting systems to the ground and therefore allow for more mycorrhizal fungi. Trees are able to draw water deeper in the soil and generally bring more diversity to the cultural landscape. Wildlife is able to find shelter in the trees, bushes, and natural greenery in the rows. The last few years, I've seen many pheasants hatch in our vineyards!

And you plant this vineyard with Piwis.

I decided to plant two Piwi grapes: Calardis Blanc and Souvignier Gris. Piwi grapes need only 2 - 3 sprayings per year and therefore much less tractor-driving, less soil compaction, less diesel burnt. This brings me to working with 4 Piwi-varieties at the moment, the first two being Regent and Sauvitage, and so far I've made really good experiences.

How will they taste or develop in 30, 50 or more years? I don't know. We have to find out. It's always a balance between keeping tradition and walking with the changing times: when we make a planting decision now, I think about the future, not only about the present.

Many young German winemakers of the current “new / natural German wine wave” have been gradually taking over their historical family winery and established business – when they arrived, they switched the winemaking to natural or low-intervention and viticulture to organic (if it wasn't already) for a certain part of the production which then grew bigger and bigger as these “new generation” wines were successful, often eventually leading to letting go of the “traditional-style” wines of their parents completely. Was that your case as well? How did you and your family live it?

After my apprentice years, studies for enology and viticulture in Geisenheim and some stops around the world, I came back home to work there full time. At that point, my parents farmed in the conventional way. I was dead certain that there is no way I'm farming conventional and my parents were luckily quite open to the idea of switching to organic farming. And that's literally how it started [laughs].

We just did it. I had no idea if it was going to work, especially on the steep slopes of some of our vineyards where we can't use any tractors. But hey, we just started and leeeeearned a lot throughout the years.

I quickly realised going organic is not enough, we actually need to farm organic-regenerative to really make a positive impact. The vineyards are completely covered with natural cover crops and so full of life. It's really a pleasure to be in the vines in springtime when nature is waking up and so many butterflies and bees are buzzing around. Of course, talking about it sounds very easy now, and yet it is associated with bigger investments in different tools needed, and then lots of trial and error.

And in the cellar?

It felt intuitively right to work naturally in the cellar, meaning without additives. The way a wine smells and tastes after some 2 years of barrel-ageing on its full lees, that's exactly what I wanted to bring to the bottle. My dream was to work with the traditional big Stückfässer [large wooden barrels or casks traditionally used in German winemaking, holding about 1,200 litres] from our region again, and I was lucky to buy amazing used ones and ferment my wines in oak.

Giving the wines more time is also a super important step. I grew up with the “classic style” Nahe wines, many sweet noble rot Rieslings. My parents still produce some wines like that, and that's okay. It's their life's work and as long as we are on the same page in the vineyards, that's fine to me. So we don't make a difference in the vineyard, all vines are farmed organic-regenerative.

What's the Nahe terroir like and how challenging is it to work organically there? I suppose that you're still among the rare natural winemakers there (please do correct me if I'm wrong! And name names!), so I wonder to what extent this is due to climate, or if it's more about conservative mindsets and other factors…

Nahe is one of the most diverse regions. We have more than 180 different types of soil, so it's hard to say "Nahe is like this or that". I love it, it never gets boring! We have a mixture of soil types and also a mix of steep and flat vineyards. The slopes are crazy hard work and not many people want to do it anymore. Organic farming is still very small and for natural wines there are only 2 wineries – Weingut Baumberger aka Glow Glow and us!

I think a lot has to do with the traditional mindset. The Nahe is not very well known, even in Germany many people haven't heard about it. It's a small region and often known only by people focused on high-end Riesling from famous VDP [Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter, a century-old, renowned association of some 200 wineries across Germany that follow its classification system based on vineyard site quality] estates. And that's okay, I don't blame anyone for making classic style wines. But what I think is a bit sad is the fact that most people work conventional... That's why we are here and work on it and hopefully inspire others too.

Is there a particular winemaker, wine, country, moment, person or other point on your winemaker's journey that really changed the way you work or think?

Not a winemaker, but I was helping on a little farm in British Columbia, Canada for a while. The owners, an elderly couple, were mostly farming for self-sustainability and sold some of their extra produce. They created a place, a home, a farm, a garden which was full of natural abundance to share with their family and friends, in harmony with their surroundings. Absolutely beautiful and very inspiring to me. In the future I wish to expand my activities around my garden and herbs.

Can you tell me more about this part of your life?

Before moving there I imagined mountains, rivers, lakes, bears.... big nature and very little people! I booked a one way ticket and flew over there. I didn't know anyone, I didn't have a laptop nor a smartphone at that time and wanted to explore other parts of the world, other cultures. Not that I was unhappy at home, don't get me wrong. But it's important to get out of the regular wine life.

And that's what I found. My heart is partly still over there, coming from Europe that is very crowded, the BC wildlife and nature made me feel so small. I was travelling for a while before I moved to Vancouver Island and spent almost 2 years there. In between the Pacific Ocean, mountains and also farming. People there are way more relaxed compared to Germany [laughs]. Before moving there, I didn't know there were such beautiful wine regions in Canada. After a while, I started working at a winery on the mainland, in the Okanagan Valley. Great time! I'm still in contact with friends from over there and hope to see them again soon.

We're both big fans of Pinot Blanc aka Weissburgunder. I personally like it because it is not usually as bold as Chardo, it often speaks quietly, but all the more it is more precise and interprets the terroir well. What do you enjoy about the grape? And what's your experience of growing it, especially the old vines you have?

For me it's one of those grapes that is often totally underestimated and quickly put aside as “nice, tasty and charming”. But in my opinion, there is so much more to it, something much deeper. We have Pinot Blanc vines aged from 8 years old to 35 years old, and then some 70-year-old ones. Standing between these old vines is something very special and almost emotional. Pinot Blanc suddenly gets a true character, offering a deeper understanding when given the chance! The more time it gets, the more the terroir can show. My favourite thing about it is that it shows in a very calm and precise way. It makes me want to sit down and take the time to explore it.

I like to chew on the grape skins when I'm in the vineyard. I often decide on the picking time depending on that. There is so much goodness packed in the skins, at first there's the fruity taste and then a touch of bitterness that I like a lot. In the cellar, it's about extracting this little extra dash of character but not overdoing it to keep the finesse that shows through, from growing on our red slate soils.

Besides Weissburgunder, which wines do you enjoy making? And drinking?

Riesling! Maybe because it's something that I grew up with and my palate is used to it. I have to admit, I often find myself craving a sip of Riesling at the end of a day [laughs]! I love the acidity, that it can be so salty, ripe, bright and yet deep, all at the same time.

Riesling can give a huge spectrum of expressions and yet still translates the place where it was grown better than any other variety, in my opinion. We grow Riesling on slate, on sandy Kieselstein soils, and on iron-rich clay with quartz, and the wines are all very different.

And, as mentioned before, I started working with different hybrids, planting them from scratch. It’s been so much fun and learning at the same time!

I'm glad that the wine world – or at least some part of it –has reached a stage where farming is talked about more than how long the wine spent on the skins, etc. Do you consider yourself a farmer? Is this role more difficult than just being a vigneronne? Do you need to have a wider range of knowledge?

Yes, I consider myself a farmer. I don't really like the term "winemaker", I consider myself a winegrower. Of course you can make beautiful wines from random grapes, but that's not what I want to do. For me the biggest part is happening in the vineyard throughout the entire year, every season is important. Later in the cellar, there are still many decisions to take, but 90 % of the work is already done.

I'm sometimes a bit sad, or annoyed if someone tastes my wines and the only question they ask is about if I added sulfites, yes or no. I don't add sulfites, but there are so many more important things happening throughout this entire process of getting the final wine or bottle in your hands.

What do you think modern farming is?

Modern farming… First thing that pops up in my head are crazy big tractors and monoculture fields. Yes, this is reality, but not the only reality. Not all new technology and equipment is bad, it often helps to do certain things more efficiently. In our small little world, we also do modern farming: here in Nahe, we have some steep slopes where we cannot use any tractors. SO, for a long time it was 100% handwork. Which is crazy hard work and very time consuming! Now, there is a colleague of ours who focuses on steep slopes and builds special tools to help us with certain work. We still have to do most of it by hand, but he drives a caterpillar that can climb the slope. I am very happy this is possible. This is also modern farming, in a way.

What does permaculture, circular economy and overall sustainability look like in your case?

As mentioned before, I try to work as organic-regenerative as possible and yet think there is still so much to learn and improve. For the new agroforestry planting, I tried to take the permaculture principle into account: looking at the vineyard orientation, where does the wind come from, the sun, what are the direct geographical circumstances, do we have water close by, is it a slope, is it flat, is it heavy soil or sandy soil, "cold feet or warm feet", etc. We planted a hedge and trees along the entire north side of the new vineyard to shelter them from the cold airflow. If there's frost, it usually affects this particular site, so I hope to prevent things like that with these natural methods.

In general my big love is SOIL... we need to build soil again. The more diversity we have in a vineyard, the better and more sustainable it is. I currently don't have capacity to make my own compost, but in our village, we bring all our pomace after pressing to one big collection point common for all wineries, and we have it composted together with manure from nearby farms. For me, sustainability is a life philosophy. So everything I do, I try to put in a bigger context... what we eat, what we consume, etc.

Yet, sustainability has more than just one dimension: besides the environmental one, there's also economic and social sustainability. We need to talk more about the social aspect, for example that I want to make sure that everyone who works with me has access to a good healthcare system.

Farming is really hard work, especially on steep slopes like ours. It's impossible to do a lot of handwork throughout the entire year, pick everything by hand, deal with weather uncertainties, work without additives, all this to sell the wine for a few euros per bottle in the end. That’s simply not possible. If so, one of these dimensions of sustainability is probably lacking. We can only guarantee environmental and social sustainability when we are also economically sustainable… eieiei, we could spend whole evenings with this important topic!

Indeed! How does German society look at the countryside and agriculture?

Unfortunately, farming doesn't have a positive stature in German society. But that's something I try to work on, to change this. I'm not a politician, but I can influence people around me. Five years ago, I started planting potatoes in the fields again and people joined. Most people are so disconnected from where food comes from and suddenly young families as well as elderly people from the village showed up when we were at the field harvesting and everybody had a good time.

I'm planning to start a little "farming" group at the village kindergarten, to take the kids outside for maybe a few hours every two weeks, so that they can learn about where their food comes from and what is happening in nature throughout the seasons. This is also a way of changing people's mindset about farming, I think.

You've also made a joint project with Jas Swan of Katla Wines [read our interview with her here], can you tell us more about it?

Yes, my friend Jas and I started a keg collab, very exciting! We thought about where most of our wines are sold and how we can make a positive impact not only in the vineyard, but further down the road – it continues in the cellar, with packaging, with shipping etc...

A keg contains 20 or 30 litres of wine, and you only need ONE container, instead of 27 or 40 units of glass bottles, corks, labels etc. Especially for restaurants that serve a lot of wine by the glass, this is a much more sustainable way of serving some of our wines. We can fit more on a pallet and the final gross weight is more than 10 times lighter compared to glass bottles. Right now, it's available in Sweden, Poland and Belgium, and we hope for more countries soon, but not everybody is set up for kegs yet.

Are there any fuck ups on your wine journey you'd like to share? I'm really curious – I made countless myself and think they are essential for our learning.

Uff haha I guess it's often trial and error! It's the best way to learn. I experiment a lot with other fruits and herbs besides grapes. I was super excited about the beautiful peaches we harvested once and totally screwed it up, OMG, during the fermentation it was already funky, but it turned really crazy and eventually I poured it down the drain.... poor peaches and all the work. But that's how it is sometimes.

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