2024-10-26 10:40:00
If Alexander Danner were a real estate agent, he would probably, like many, mutter the mantra “Location, location, location.” While this also fits with the profession he learned as a winemaker, the Baden native has drawn different conclusions from many years of experience and observation. His mantra is “grounds, floors, floors.” He firmly believes that healthy soils are the basis for longevity and healthiness and therefore also for the exceptional nature of the wines.
The forty-nine year old developed his knowledge not in university seminars, where natural viticulture and fruit growing are now part of the curriculum, but through his own reflections, experiments and discussions with winemakers and farmers who follow ancient traditions. “I didn’t study oenology and, three decades ago, in the professional school where I trained, ecological aspects played no role,” says Danner: “At the beginning I had more the feeling that all the salts and ammonium were caused by nitrogen fertilizers used during fertilization. They can be used, but they cannot be good for the soil. And then I started experimenting.”
An affront to traditionalists
He had been thinking about a different approach to conventional viticulture since he was young, when he started working in his parents’ company. The parents were winemakers in Durbach, albeit not with their own estate, but as suppliers to the local winemakers’ cooperative. “But I wanted to make my own wine,” Danner says, which is why he decided to take a radical step when he took over his parents’ growing areas in 2005: “I canceled our cooperative membership.” an affront to the traditionalists, who also observed with suspicion what was happening in the now independent Danner winery.
Traditionalists would have the opportunity to shake their heads again and again for years to come, as master winemaker Danner was unorthodox in everything he did. Danner’s experiments were guided by his observations, scientific discoveries, and a great interest in indigenous peoples, spirituality, and natural medicine. According to his own statement, he was one of the first to work in Germany with the “effective microorganisms” developed in Japanese horticulture. . Although their effect is not scientifically proven, Danner has had good experiences with them: “I tried them first on single rows of vines and after noticing at the end of the season that both the grapes and the vine leaves were significantly healthier From then on I used the process throughout the vineyard.”
“But I’m not an esoteric”
To regenerate the soil, Danner also relied on self-fermenting bacteria and fungi to stimulate soil life, but also on the use of singing bowls or “light water”, as he calls a water enriched with water from a particularly ancient spring and the copper with which he watered the vineyards. “But I’m not esoteric,” Danner says. “I had the light water examined and measured in institutes and I had confirmation of its exceptional nature”, underlines the oenologist, who not only relied on experiments, but also on the traditional knowledge of ancient natural winemakers, especially in France .
During a visit to the south of France, he noticed that a winemaker had grounded his barrels with copper pipes. “When I asked him what the purpose was, he said they had been doing it for generations to dissipate the static charge that comes from pressure. This allows the molecular chains to accumulate better. This immediately made sense to me and I also equipped all my rods with copper tubing.
Even in the cellar the winemaker has decided to renounce conventional methods. He relied on natural yeasts and avoided aromatic yeasts allowed in viticulture. “There are more than 300 substances allowed in winemaking, and if I wanted, I could make the wine taste like lychee or mango or ice cream candy. All this chemistry is necessary for quick yields. I decided to spend time and patience in the basement.
The cellar was lost in 2018
It was a risk to rely on the time factor in maturation, after all he could not sell this wine immediately, but this strategy was soon noticed. Luxury restaurants especially have taken notice of the unconventional winemaker. Among his customers were famous chefs such as Johann Lafer, Tim Mälzer and Frank Rosin, and the Dallmayr delicatessen in Munich included Danner’s wines in its edition.
But this popularity did not bring Danner lasting success. The contrast between tradition and vision could perhaps be bridged in the vast world of wine, but not in his immediate family environment. Disputes and lawsuits led to him losing the winery he had run since 2006 in 2018. The vineyards were sold, leaving the defeated man in a deep depression.
Danner managed to free himself from all this and now, together with his second wife Anita, he discovers that his path towards winemaking is the right one. After the closure of his winery, he was left with around 100,000 bottles of wine and sparkling wine, which are stored in a cold store in Freiburg and have now gradually reached maturity for sale. Danner and his wife now live in an apartment on the Hofgut Amalienberg in Gaggenau, from where they produce their wines via an online store chase away.
A wine stands out
The range includes sparkling wines matured on the yeasts for nine years and which, despite long storage, impress with their subtle freshness and, at best, a subtle brioche note, as well as various spontaneously fermented wines with natural yeasts, including including Riesling, Pinot Grigi, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir. Danner aged some wines in oak barrels, others in steel tanks, but he always dedicated a lot of time to them. “I recently presented some sommeliers with a 2006 Riesling as fresh as a much younger wine,” says Danner, who also makes very interesting cuvées of different vintages and mixed sets, in which several different grape varieties are fermented together. offer.
Among these, one wine in particular stands out. Danner gave it the name Philia Type 4 Freude and recommends a small ceremony to enjoy it: the wine made from Müller-Thurgau grapes was bottled with all the yeast. The bottle must then be delicately uncorked and the wine, except for a small residue, poured into a carafe. The yeast is then poured separately into another jug, from which it is then dosed drop by drop into the glass as it is drunk. The constantly changing aromas are pure joy, says the winemaker.
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