The "Ecological Winery Pix" is located in the municipality of Ihringen (Kaiserstuhl area) in the German wine-growing region of
Baden. Born in Stuttgart, Reinhold Pix moved to
Freiburg at the end of the 1970s to study forestry, where he farmed around ten acres of Silvaner and Pinot Noir as a hobby winemaker. Together with his wife Helga, a winemaker's daughter, he founded a winery in Ihringen in 1984. The vineyards cover six hectares of vines in the single vineyard sites of Fohrenberg and
Winklerberg in Ihringen. They are planted with the red wine varieties Pinot Noir, Lemberger and Cabernet Carol, as well as the white wine varieties Pinot Gris, Silvaner, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Müller-Thurgau and Chardonnay. The entire farm is managed
organically according to
Bioland guidelines. This means that no
fungicides,
herbicides or artificial fertilisers are used. Only organic
fertiliser is used and
legumes are sown in selectively
After the grapes have been harvested by hand in up to three selective passes, the grapes, which are always free of botrytis, are pressed whole. Afterwards, an intuitive decision is made as to whether fermentation should take place
spontaneously or with the addition of pure yeasts. The range is divided into two lines. The basic line "AuswahlPix" comprises wines that do not have the designation "Prädikatswein", even though they are located there in terms of sugar content. The "SpitzenauswahlPix" line comprises wines from particularly selected grapes. The fermentation and ageing of the white wines usually takes place in stainless steel tanks. The exception is Chardonnay, which is fermented in barriques and matures there until bottling. The red wines are stored in barriques for at least 12 months
