Over the past several years we have travelled repeatedly to Germany, to Franconia, to Rheinhessen, to Baden, and watched a movement quietly reshape itself from the ground up. The picture that has emerged is not one week or one trip. It is a small, connected community of natural winemakers, some working for over four decades and some only for a few years, who share cellars, share ideas, and share vintages. This piece is what we have seen.
What German natural wine is right now
The received wisdom about German wine (sweet, Riesling-dominated, hard to understand) is roughly forty years out of date. What has been happening quietly since the early 1980s, and accelerating over the last decade, is a serious organic and natural wine movement centred in Rheinhessen, Franconia, Pfalz, and Baden. It has produced some of the most respected natural Pinot Noir in Europe, some of the most interesting skin-contact and field-blend whites in the world, and a tight, generous community of winemakers who share cellars, share ideas, and share vintages. The relationships between these producers are as much a part of the story as the wines themselves.
German natural wine, as we define it here, is wine made in Germany with minimal intervention: organic or biodynamic farming, spontaneous fermentation using native yeasts, minimal or no added sulphur, and no fining or filtration. The movement has grown steadily since the 1980s, when a small handful of estates began farming organically well before certification systems existed. It now includes several dozen producers across the country, with the largest and most connected community in Rheinhessen.
The Franconia anchor: 2Naturkinder, Kitzingen
The oldest of our German relationships is with Michael Völker and Melanie Drese at 2Naturkinder in Kitzingen, Franconia. We have been carrying their wines since 2020 and visited the estate for the first time in 2023, returning again in 2024. Franconia sits in northern Bavaria, geographically the eastern edge of the German natural wine map, and the wines are shaped by shell-limestone soils and a cooler continental climate.
What sets 2Naturkinder apart, and what made the estate one of our earliest German commitments, is that the vineyard is treated as habitat before it is treated as a farm. Bat boxes go up between the rows; their guano returns to the soil; a share of every bottle funds conservation work in the surrounding countryside. In the cellar, nothing is filtered. No sulphur is added. Spontaneous ferments, long ageing, a light hand. The wines are left to find their own shape rather than pushed towards a house style, which is why no two bottles are quite the same.
The 2Naturkinder cellar is enormous and runs underground; large old tanks that once produced bulk wine still stand along the walls, no longer in use. What strikes you first is how quietly organised everything is (the daily task lists, the disciplined layout of the storage, a German precision behind every decision), though Michael himself carries an unmistakable warmth that runs against the register. On the first visit in 2023 the wines were more restless: higher acidity, one or two reductive notes, one or two clear stand-outs. By 2024 they had settled into something more mellow and self-assured, and a longer, deeper conversation with Michael over the course of that second visit is what turned the relationship from portfolio slot to genuine commitment. We have a particular affection for their Frensch, a historically significant field-blend from the region, even if it is difficult to place commercially. Without leaning too heavily on the subject, climate change has actually helped these wines find a slightly riper balance that suits Southeast Asian palates better than a vintage from a decade ago might have.
2Naturkinder is our anchor in Franconia and the estate our Singapore customers know best. Their Silvaners have been a Racine constant for years.
The pioneer generation: Weingut Mann, Rheinhessen
Weingut Mann, in Eckelsheim in the western hills of Rheinhessen, has been farming organically since 1984. That decision was made in the previous generation of the family, well before Andi Mann took over the estate, and Andi has continued and deepened that direction in the years since. The 1984 date matters. It predates the current German organic certification systems by nearly a decade, and it predates the arrival of the natural wine movement in Germany by considerably longer. At the time, there were almost no models to follow and almost no market for what the estate was doing.
The estate sits on rolling limestone hills that are geologically characteristic of Rheinhessen, the largest wine region in Germany by area and, as we have learned over the course of our visits, the geographical and social centre of the young German natural wine community. The Mann cellar has hosted at least two vintages of another producer we work with (Soma Vines, whose story appears further down). Andi Mann's Geisenheim classmates now include several of the most talked-about young winemakers in the country. The estate is, in a quiet way, a hub.
We have been working with Weingut Mann since 2020, the first German producer in the Racine portfolio, and every vintage since has shown a quiet but steady evolution. Andi's Müller-Thurgau has become notably more refined as he has adapted his cellar work to a changing climate, moving from longer skin-contact towards shorter macerations and direct press. Where many producers are scrambling to adapt, Andi's response has been quietly considered. In the vineyards he has begun introducing fruit trees and other plants, and grazing sheep between the rows, building biodiversity into the estate as a matter of course rather than principle.
There is a signature to Andi's wines that takes some time to name: a lightness, an absence of anything overwhelming, wines you can sit with for hours. That is not accidental. Andi likes to host lunches and dinners at the winery, and his wines are shaped for exactly the kind of long, unrushed meals he prefers. On our latest visit he spoke about what he calls "sandwich wines": wines meant to take a secondary or tertiary role in a life, wines for all kinds of ordinary situations rather than for celebrations or events. It is a useful frame for thinking about the whole estate. His top cuvées are the Herr Kretz Rieslings and the Kirschgarten Chardonnays. The Silvaners in particular repay attention.
The elder of the natural Pinot generation: Sven Enderle, Baden
Sven Enderle co-founded Enderle & Moll in Baden in 2007, near the edge of the Black Forest. The project is widely credited among wine writers and sommeliers as one of the foundational estates of modern German natural Pinot Noir. The wines that Sven and Florian Moll made together in the years that followed became, for a generation of natural wine drinkers and younger winemakers, the reference point for what German Spätburgunder could be when the vineyard work took precedence and the cellar was left alone.
Sven left Enderle & Moll in 2019 and has been building a solo project since. Meeting him now, after the reputation of the earlier project has fully settled, was one of the most editorially interesting stops of our recent work in Germany. There is a specific kind of clarity that comes from someone who has already helped invent a category and is now doing something else.
The visit felt, honestly, like meeting a long-lost friend. We had been drinking Enderle & Moll wines for years and always sensed something particular in them. I reached out to Sven on social media, and when I arrived in his village he asked whether I was in a rush. I told him this was my only appointment that day, and we spent it together. He talked us through the current project: his ongoing conviction that German Pinot Noir has more to give, his continued work with the Baden vineyards he knows best.
We tasted Müller-Thurgau skin contact, Chardonnay, a blended Pinot Noir, and Pinot Noirs from a range of soil types. Then lunch along the Mosel, looking up at his vineyards, before we climbed into the vines themselves, a physically demanding walk that Sven brushed off with the observation that "you'll get used to it." Back at his cellar we filmed a short tasting together before I left. He was, remarkably, one of the most down-to-earth winemakers we have visited.
Sven has since moved to Trittenheim on the Mosel and taken on a plot of Riesling that will become his newest project. He is not giving up the Pinot Noirs of Baden. His new range will be released under a new label, a Van Gogh-esque portrait of him alongside the name and varietal of each wine.
Baden as a region is often described in shorthand as "the German Burgundy," largely because Pinot Noir and Chardonnay drive the identity and the geology has real similarities to eastern France. What Sven's work suggests is that the comparison is only useful up to a point. Baden is its own thing, with its own light, its own vineyard tradition, and its own answers.
The next generation: Max Dexheimer, Rheinhessen
Max Dexheimer is a fifth-generation winemaker in Saulheim, Rheinhessen. He studied at Geisenheim alongside Andi Mann, Andi Weigand, and Martin "Marto" Wörner, a group of young winemakers now widely recognised as the leading edge of the next generation of German natural wine.
The Dexheimer estate has been in the family since 1896, and Max is taking it over from his father in stages. That inheritance angle is worth pausing on, because most natural wine stories are stories of rupture: young winemakers breaking away from conventional parents, converting estates, replanting vineyards. Max's story is different. He is negotiating with the tradition rather than rejecting it, and the wines carry that carefully. Inherited Stückfass barrels (the 1,200-litre oval oak vessels typical of the region) sit in the old cellar under the family house, alongside the wines Max is making now.
The handover from father to son has been unusually harmonious. In the cellar, Max's wines sit side by side with his father's vintages, and the family has temporarily stepped back from the estate's restauration business to concentrate on the wines themselves. What is most striking is Max's focus on Pinot Noir. The wines taste, in a way that is genuinely unexpected, like Pinot Noir tasted in France a generation ago: fresh, crisp, lively, with a lift and acidity that the current climate makes harder to preserve further south. We tasted one of the wines at the back of Max's old VW Polo, parked among the vines: a good example of the tone of the visit, and of the estate itself.
The wines are spontaneously fermented, aged long, and bottled with almost no sulphur. The Silvaners in particular (from limestone, clay, and yellow sandstone parcels around Saulheim) are among the most articulate expressions of the grape we have tasted in the region.
The international perspective: Soma Vines, Rheinhessen
Soma Vines is the project of Daisy Merrick (from Norwich, in the UK) and Antoine Lucchesi (from Marseille, in the south of France). They founded the operation in Berlin in 2018 as an importer of natural wine into Germany. Their first vintage as winemakers came in 2020. Between 2021 and 2022, they made their wines inside Weingut Mann's cellar in Eckelsheim, the same cellar where the Mann estate has been farming organically since 1984.
That detail, an English importer and a French winemaker making German natural wine inside the cellar of a founding-generation German organic producer, captures something specific about what is happening in this community. The boundaries between generations, countries, and roles are porous. People help each other. Cellars get shared. Since 2023, Soma has been operating out of their own space in Hackenheim.
Soma are négoce winemakers, buying grapes from organic and biodynamic growers they know personally rather than farming their own vineyards. Antoine trained at a winemaking school in Alsace and worked at Sekthaus Griesel and Domaine Brand. Both Daisy and Antoine interned with Michael Völker at 2Naturkinder in Franconia earlier in their careers, which is one of the reasons the German section of the Racine portfolio feels, on the ground, so connected.
We began the morning at Soma with a bottling session in their cellar. Once the wines were in bottle we sat down to a quick meal of gratin and cheeses over a few open bottles, and then tasted through the barrels. The one that stayed with me longest was the Wild Things Riesling sous voile, made in a solera system with a layer of flor sitting across the top of the barrel. It was extraordinary, and rare in Germany. With Soma's cellar moving from Hackenheim to Alsace for the 2026 harvest, a new solera will need to be started; the barrel we tasted from will not travel with them.
What connects them
The five producers we work with in Germany are not a random selection, and the connections between them are not incidental. In different combinations, they are woven together:
- Andi Mann and Max Dexheimer studied together at Geisenheim, along with Andi Weigand and Martin "Marto" Wörner. This cohort is now widely considered the leading edge of the next generation of Rheinhessen natural winemakers.
- Daisy Merrick and Antoine Lucchesi made their 2021 and 2022 vintages inside Andi Mann's cellar. Andi hosted them for two years before Soma moved to their own space.
- Daisy and Antoine both interned with Michael Völker at 2Naturkinder, whose wines have been part of the Racine portfolio since 2020.
- Sven Enderle is the elder figure the younger winemakers grew up watching. Enderle & Moll's wines were, for a generation of German natural wine enthusiasts, the reference point for what was possible.
None of these connections are visible from a wine list in Singapore. But they are the actual substance of what German natural wine is right now: a community of relationships, shared cellars, shared classroom histories, shared vintages. Understanding this network is understanding the wines. Watching the connections deepen across our visits is what has made this portfolio feel, over time, less like a collection of estates and more like a single ongoing conversation we happen to be part of.
What Singapore drinkers should know
Three things, we think, based on what we have seen across these visits:
- German natural wine is not defined by Riesling. Silvaner, Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir), and a range of field-blend whites are doing more interesting work than the received wisdom suggests. Riesling is present, and often beautiful, but it is not the whole story and has not been for a long time.
- The region to watch is Rheinhessen. By area the largest wine region in Germany and by community structure the most active in natural wine right now. Almost every conversation we have had in Germany traces back through Rheinhessen at some point. Franconia, Pfalz, and Baden each have their own scenes and their own strengths, but Rheinhessen is where the density is.
- The wines are, at their best, unrepeatable. The combination of limestone, cool climate, minimal-intervention winemaking, and a specific German precision produces wines with a character that does not quite exist anywhere else. Comparing them to Burgundy or Champagne is useful only up to a point. Past that point, they should be met on their own terms.
What is next
Over the coming months, wines from all five German producers will be present at Racine: some already in the German Cellar, others arriving through the rest of the year. The Instagram rollout of the German Chapter unfolds over several weeks in parallel, telling the story one producer, one connection, one composite reel at a time.
For now, this piece is where the story lives on our site. The wines will follow. If you would like to be notified as specific bottles arrive, subscribe to the newsletter or write to us on WhatsApp.
Frequently asked questions
What is German natural wine?
German natural wine is wine made in Germany with minimal intervention: organic or biodynamic farming, spontaneous fermentation using native yeasts, minimal or no added sulphur, and no fining or filtration. The movement in Germany has grown steadily since the 1980s, when a small handful of estates began farming organically well before certification systems existed. It now includes producers across Rheinhessen, Franconia, Baden, Pfalz, and Mosel.
Which German wine regions are most active in natural wine?
Rheinhessen is the geographical and social centre of the current German natural wine community, with the largest concentration of young natural winemakers. Franconia (led by producers like 2Naturkinder and Weingut Weigand), Pfalz, and Baden also have active natural wine scenes. The Mosel and Rheingau are quieter but have some notable natural producers.
Who are some of the important producers in German natural wine?
In the founding generation: Enderle & Moll (Baden), Odinstal (Pfalz), 2Naturkinder (Franconia), and Weingut Mann (Rheinhessen). In the next generation, largely based in Rheinhessen and Franconia: Weingut Weigand, Marto Wines, Weingut Krebs, and Max Dexheimer, among others. More recent projects include Soma Vines and Michael Auer.
How does German natural wine compare to Champagne or Burgundy?
Some comparisons are geologically useful. Baden's Pinot Noirs share terroir characteristics with Burgundy, and Lorraine's limestone (which straddles the German-French border) shares geology with Champagne. But the wines have their own character, shaped by a cool climate, precise winemaking traditions, and a specific German approach to detail. Comparisons help orient a first-time drinker; they should not be used to reduce the wines to something they are not.
Where can I buy German natural wine in Singapore?
Racine Wines Co. imports natural wines directly from producers across Rheinhessen, Franconia, and Baden. See our German Cellar for the current selection, or reach out on WhatsApp for personalised recommendations.
