Weekend winemakers: Florian Franke and Yvette Wohlfahrt in their rented wine cellar in Kosakenberg Castle in Geisenheim
Image: Samira Schulz
The Wohlfahrt-Franke winery in Geisenheim is small, but special: the wine is made at the weekend, there is a sofa in the rented basement and the labels are designed by a tattoo studio.
Uo stand out from the large group of winemakers in the Rheingau, winegrowers have to come up with something. Yvette Wohlfahrt and Florian Franke attract attention even before the guest has tasted a sip of their wine. “Where Rock’n’Roll Rheingau Riesling meets Slowmo Spätburgunder” is what they say on their Instagram account. Then you know what to expect. And so, in front of the Kosakenberg Castle in Geisenheim, stands a man with short pants, a long beard, a well-groomed bald head, eye-catching glasses and tattooed arms and legs. Florian Franke not only has rock ‘n’ roll, but also style. Likewise his girlfriend Yvette Wohlfahrt. In order to be able to judge the style of their wines, you follow the vintner couple down old, worn stone steps into the cellar. He doesn’t belong to them. “We rented it from the Decker-Horz family, who took over the Freiherr von Zwierlein winery,” says the winemaker.
The round vaulted walls with the typical black coverings impress here as in many other wineries. On the side are wooden barrels in which the wine can develop for months. And yet the cellar also resists the mainstream: between the barrels there is an amphora and a ceramic barrel for experiments with the aging. Hoses hang rolled up on the walls, wine bottles are stored in large gray crates. Everything seems orderly and improvised. “We only farm 0.8 hectares,” says Franke. Depending on the vintage, that makes a maximum of 5000 bottles. Here in the depths of Kosakenberg Castle, the two of them make their complete wine. A crane lifts the grapes down into the cellar. In the anteroom they are destemmed. Wohlfahrt and Franke use their own press to prepare them for fermentation.