Van Volxem – The rebirth of a Roman legend on the Saar
Deep within the steep slate slopes of the Saar Valley, where the Romans planted their vines as far back as the 3rd century, lies a vineyard that, like no other, embodies the union of ancient terroir and a modern vision . Van Volxem – a name that evokes an eventful history, that of an estate whose roots stretch back to a Roman villa, fragments of which are still visible on the site today.
The estate’s vineyards are among the oldest steep-slope vineyards in existence. Rediscovered by monks in the 11th century, the estate was managed from the 17th by the Jesuit Order as a monastic vineyard. Following secularisation in the wake of the French Revolution, the estate eventually came into the hands of Gustav van Volxem, a brewer who had emigrated from Brussels. The visionary Van Volxem recognised the potential of the ‘Große Lagen’ and developed the estate into one of the most renowned wineries in the Empire. His ‘Creszenzen’ wines found their way onto the wine lists of international luxury hotels and made Saar wine a globally sought-after luxury commodity.
However, the glory days faded. After four generations in the Van Volxem family and an interim takeover by Peter Jordan, the estate had fallen into disrepair by the late 1990s. The turning point came in 2000, when the economic geographer and business economist Roman Niewodniczanski took over the estate. Against the advice of his father, who predicted: “You will fail”, he embarked on one of the most remarkable stories of revival in German viticulture.
Today, Van Volxem cultivates around 85 hectares across almost all the valleys of the Saar. The portfolio of vineyards includes VDP.Große Lagen such as the legendary Scharzhofberger, the Wiltinger Gottesfuß – one of the steepest and most renowned sites in the Saar, with 130-year-old, ungrafted Riesling vines – as well as Bockstein, Geisberg, Goldberg and Altenberg. Riesling is grown on 98 per cent of the vineyard area, and its grapes are harvested by hand in a labour-intensive process.
In the cellar, the estate relies on spontaneous fermentation with its own yeasts in traditional Fuder barrels – a philosophy that lends the wines their unmistakable minerality, elegance and longevity. In 2007, Van Volxem was admitted to the VDP. Cellar master Christoph Friedrich joined the team in 2022. On the Wiltinger Schlossberg, Niewodniczanski built a spectacular new winery – a monument to the rebirth of Saar Riesling. Van Volxem is more than just a winery – it is the living history of a region, which breathes its incomparable spirit into every bottle.
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Contents: 0.75 Liter (€56.00* / 1 Liter)
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