Rainer Schnaitmann`s family has been involved in winegrowing for around 600 years but for a lot of the twentieth century were growers rather than winemakers. The estate was most famous/notorious for Trollinger wines widely thought of as a substandard variety – though now they know how to do it, says Rainer. And there's much less of it now. The man himself initially ran away to become an architect but was drawn back by ambition and the strong desire to fulfil the Schnaitmann estate’s potential. He worked for a year in New Zealand as part of his training and now makes wine from 160 different plots spread over 25 hectares. They’ve got steep slopes overlooking Fellbach and these consist of various marls, limestone and sandstone.

Rainer has become a bit of a cult winemaker in Germany and is particularly revered for his Pinot Noir, but these are very difficult to obtain dn we were particularly impressed by the Lemberger and the Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. (CW 02/07/19)