The winery is located in the municipality of Dernau in the German wine-growing region of Ahr. It was founded in 1910 by Gottfried Sebastian. From 1998, the business was run by the sisters Andrea Bertram and Ricarda Sebastian. In 2014, daughter Julia Baltes (formerly Bertram) vinified her first wine line of 1.3 hectares of vines. She has been running the winery together with her husband Benedikt Baltes since 2019. Both come from winegrowing families in the Ahr Valley. After training as winemakers, studying and working in various positions in Germany and abroad, they got to know each other and have been married since 2018. Benedikt Baltes sold his former winery in Klingenberg in 2019. The couple returned to the Ahr Valley and merged the vineyards of the two families into the Bertram-Baltes winery.
Vineyards
The vineyards cover 7.5 hectares of vines in the Goldkaul, Hardtberg and Pfarrwingert (Dernau), Mönchberg (Mayschoss) and Trotzenberg (Marienthal) sites, some of which are very steep, as well as Forstberg and Rosenthal (Ahrweiler). The vineyards are planted with 100% Pinot Noir, mostly very old vines.
Cultivation
The vineyards are cultivated according to certified organic rules that fulfil all the requirements of the EU Organic Regulation. In addition, many permaculture approaches are implemented in the vineyards. Numerous trees have been planted in the centre of the rows of vines. Sheep grazing in the vineyard all year round tend the cover crop and also bring in the fertiliser directly on site. A high level of vine vine training cover leads to shorter foliage, which means less water is required, less pesticides are needed and ripening is naturally delayed.
No plastic is used in the vineyards; instead, natural and renewable raw materials are used. Due to the steep slopes, only manual labour is possible. A quality-enhancing yield reduction is achieved through defoliation, grape division and thinning out. Thanks to 100% selective hand-picking, only physiologically ripe and healthy grapes are processed. After destemming, the grapes are selected again.
Vinification
Gentle processing ensures that the wines reflect the soil, the weather, the work in the vineyard, the vintage and the winemaker's style. The wines are fermented spontaneously without pure yeasts and matured for 18 months in barrels made from local oak. They are then bottled without fining or filtration. The premium wines of the house are the Pinot Noir red wines from the terraced vineyards Goldkaul, Trotzenberg, Kräuterberg and Mönchberg. Every year, 30,000 bottles of wine are produced.
Vineyard & sheep: Andreas Durst
