Julius Höfflin

Julius Höfflin has taken us a bit by surprise. The young winemaker belongs in Kaiserstuhl in Baden, an area best known for potent Pinot Noir with high alcohol, but he insists on doing things his own way. Among other things, he makes an exceptionally elegant Pinot Noir mixed with a little bit of Riesling and an explosively aromatic macerated Sauvignon Blanc with long aging. Julius Höfflin is a man who possesses both the courage and the skills to succeed in such an endeavour. In short, his wine has impressed us immensely and is unlike anything else in our portfolio.

Before Julius Höfflin set out to make wine according to his own ideas, he studied viticulture and oenology and worked for Bastian Wolber in Burgundy and Maison Maenad in Jura among others. Today, he has become the youngest member of the family domaine Weingut Höfflin that has worked organically since 1974. Julius has begun his venture by continuing this organic approach on a single hectare with a modest yield, but his plan is to gradually increase his production.

We are dealing with a tenacious young man who is involved in many different projects including a specialization in ‘agroforestry’. This means that Julius plants trees in and around the vineyards to increase biodiversity, which also explains why each cuvée has a tree on the label. In the cellar, fermentation takes place in steel tanks before the wines age in oak barreals, and the vinification generally follows a path of minimal intervention with naturally occurring yeasts and without fining or filtration.