The winery is located in the municipality of Wiltingen in the German Moselle wine-growing region and is one of the oldest wineries on the Saar. It dates back to a Roman villa complex, fragments of which are still visible on the site today. In 1743, a monastery winery of the Luxembourg Jesuit College was built on the foundations. Following the French Revolution, the estate was secularised and eventually became the property of Gustav van Volxem, a brewer who had immigrated from Brussels. It was subsequently run by the Van Volxem family for four generations. In 1993, Peter Jordan took over the business and ran it under the name Jordan & Jordan. At the end of 1999, the estate was bought by Roman Niewodniczanski (scion of the Bitburger dynasty) and revitalised under its old name. He had previously studied economic geography and business administration. Major investments were made in vineyards with additional plots, buildings and cellars.
On the site of a former winery on the Wiltinger Schlossberg, a new manufactory was built with ecological and social sustainability in mind. The tower-like building, the "Monolith", is connected to the production facility underground through the wooden barrel cellar and includes a courtyard area with a sun terrace for visitors. The panorama lounge and the wine cellar can be used for celebrations for up to 50 people. The vinotheque offers a spectacular panoramic view of the vineyards in the old arm of the Saar. Cellar master Christoph Friedrich and estate manager Lukas Becker have been responsible for the business since 2022.
The vineyards cover 80 hectares of vines in the single vineyard sites Braunfels, Gottesfuß, Klosterberg, Kupp and Scharzhofberg (Wiltingen), Goldberg and Ritterpfad (Wawern), Altenberg (Kanzem), as well as Bockstein and Geisberg (Ockfen). The vineyards are already mentioned or included in the Prussian vineyard classification map "Saar and Mosel" from 1868. A speciality are the 130-year-old Riesling vines in Gottesfuß at ungrafted. They are mainly planted with the Riesling variety, with the remainder planted with Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay. A further six hectares are cultivated by contract winegrowers in the so-called "Saar Riesling Project", who have to work according to strict quality criteria. Environmentally friendly viticulture is consistently practised, for example without the use of insecticides and synthetic fertilisers.
The extremely low yields average just 34 hectolitres per hectare. The grape harvest begins at the end of October at the earliest and lasts until December. Fermentation takes place spontaneously with the vineyard's own yeasts, followed by yeast storage in traditional large wooden barrels(Fuder). The wines are produced according to the four-stage VDP classification model. They are predominantly vinified dry. The estate wines are mostly vinified separately according to vineyard site and offered fully fermented as quality wines or fruit-sweet as Prädikat wines. Two Rieslings are produced from the best sites, one from the entire area and a selection from the highest quality parcels. Bottle-fermented sparkling wines (also in magnum format), grape juice and a gin are also marketed. Around 300,000 bottles of wine are produced each year. The winery is a member of the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter).
Pictures: Van Volxem/Wiltingen
