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 There are not too many medium-sized wineries whose white wines would be sold out for the previous vintage by the following September but the 39-year old Markus Schneider confesses he did not have to extend the dinner invitation for the judges as a promotional activity. He was genuinely happy to welcome so many international wine experts under one roof and proud to share the success story of the winery.
The Schneider family had been already growing grapes in 1994 when the 19 year Markus decided to do something new on his own. He borrowed €15,000 from his father and started making his own wine in his small village. He has reached the sales of 800,000 bottles of wine and has already established himself as a reputed vintner from Pfalz (Palatinate). Barely a few weeks ago his new state-of-the-art winery was completed at the cost of €10 million.
 ‘Passion to make good wines’ may again be cliché to most but for this first generation entrepreneur, it’s this passion that drove him to work hard and despite difficulties and obstacles he persevered and succeeded. As I sipped a Weissburgunder that had a lot of personality- almost attitude, he gave me the example that when he went to sell this wine during the early days, people were not prepared to pay him more than €2.50 despite the high quality. Today he sells it for €10; 4 times the price and it’s easier to sell today, he says with a smile.
 To produce these 800,000 bottles (about 65,000 cases) he used grapes from his own 30 h/A vineyards while 60 hA are under contract. His production is divided into 50% white wines and the balance 50% are red. In white they specialise in Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris (Grauburgunder) and Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) whereas the reds are the Cabernet varieties, Pinot Noir and Blaufränkisch.
By using some of the non-conventional techniques he has been able to produce wines with excellent character and personalities. It is rare to find wines which are really swaad according to my definition (balanced and tasty wines that ‘touch’ your soul and you want to take the next  sip, glass and the bottle). Every white wine that we tasted had that personality. One just did not want to leave the glass but one had to abandon it for a few minutes to stand in line and get food, which was on the brie (South African barbeque). All the equipment has been imported from South Africa where he has friends Daniel and Carin Kaapzicht. They own the family- winery Kaapzicht which I had visited barely 10 days earlier. They have very good wines, especially the Pinotage but Daniel is also passionate about the big brie they have and is an excellent ‘brie-chef’. In fact, it is the passion for wines that Markus imports a  few hundred cases of Pinotage from Kaapzicht.
The wines are of excellent quality-which does not come cheap. But there are takers for his wines with unique character and his customers throng the winery to buy cases of wines. I would not be able to rate any wine tasted at less than 90/100.
 Interestingly, when I asked him why his website was a ‘black print’ - http://www.black-print.net/#!/en/home/ he told me with a hearty laugh that there was a Schneider at every stone-throw here; a very common family name in this part of Germany. To avoid any confusion, he went for his favourite colour black and a lot of modern architecture has used the colour to give concentration and depth.
What would be the lessons for a small Indian entrepreneur who wants to make his own wine and market it, I ask him for his opinion. ‘Hard work, hard work and hard work’, he says. Of course, the art of perseverance and persuasion to stick with the quality and have the knack of marketing  are the intrinsic qualities he implied one should have, during my exclusive chat with him before dinner.
Generally on the Tasting eve, most people are tired and want to go back to the hotel as soon as possible after a quick meal. This was one wine dinner no one wanted to leave. The wines, the food (he had a special South African brie that dished out the best burgers one has had) and the special buzz in the atmosphere ensured that the visitors would talk of his winery, wine and his success story.
This is a highly recommended winery for a visit, tasting and buying a mixed case or two of white wines from their portfolio. Even the reds are generally very good, except that I could not reach that state-what with the swaad white wines beckoning at every glass. Whatever I did taste was worth a repeat though. They are open from 9-4 Monday to Saturday.
For more info, write to Markus at info@black-print.net
Subhash Arora |