5 minutes with... Our interview with the Rennersistas
These values can be found in the wines. In short:
"Fine yeast instead of sulfur. Omitting instead of adding. Accompanying instead of intervening."
8gb: Hello dear Susanne, hello dear Stefanie! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions about you and your wines! For those who don't know your wines yet, what makes them so special in your eyes?
Stefanie: "We have a very empirical approach to winemaking, there was a lot of learning by doing in our career. Our wines are more like diamonds in the rough than polished, we give the wines a lot of freedom and you can often taste this untamed quality in the wine. Ultimately, though, cool and lean wines in a very hot, dry area."
8gb: What do you like to eat with your wines? What pairings do you like?
Stefanie: "We are actually quite uncomplicated. (Almost) nothing beats a good sourdough bread with real organic raw milk butter and fresh chives. And otherwise: In principle, anything goes, as long as the quality of the basic product is right."
8gb: Was it always natural for you to produce natural wine, or how did it come about?
Stefanie: "No, all three siblings first learned other things, studied, worked, and only at a certain age did we realize how exciting agriculture is. How important it is, above all, to keep the soil healthy and to get cool products from the plants. And that we can now make a contribution to that, we think that's great."
8gb: And that it should be natural wine?
Stefanie: "Oh, yes. To produce natural wine! Yes. Our parents have already worked organically and also in the cellar exclusively with sulfur and filtration. In 2012 there was a small amount of Chardonnay mash-fermented and unsulfured, so the interest was piqued in us even before we started. We just refined it and applied it to the entire Weingut ."
8gb: What is one of the biggest life lessons you have learned so far since making your own wines?
Accept change
"Stay open to new things, to change. The world will change all the time. Our own tastes are constantly and always changing. This also means that we often harvest a vintage and our thoughts are already a year ahead again and we already decide that we will try something new next time. That way, though, it doesn't get boring."
8gb: Can you remember your first experience with natural wine?
Stefanie: "We probably learned from the beginning and the first attempts of the Pannobile colleagues. We can still remember the first wines like Arianna Occhipinti, Testalonga, etc."
8gb: If you had the opportunity to start all over again today, would you do anything differently?
Stefanie: "Actually, no. Everything already fit in a way. We experimented and risked a lot from the beginning and we still like that today."
8gb: What is the most beautiful thing for you in the whole winemaking process?
Stefanie: "The diversity, the variety. All the work in the vineyard, observing nature as it changes and develops over the year. Accompanying the wines in the cellar, the opportunity to always try something new. The great joy when a wine goes into the bottle and the many different tastes that wine offers. The enjoyment with other people, the social aspect of the whole wine experience. Oh, that's what we miss the most right now."
More Experiments
8gb: What can we expect from you in the future?
Stefanie: "Experimenting even more. Always looking for more radiance in the wines, even more diverse management, we definitely don't want to stop learning. Both in the vineyard and in winemaking."
8gb: Finally, tell us your 5 favorite 8greenbottles wines?
Stefanie: Well, of course, these are...
The 5 Favorite Wines of the Rennersistas
Thank you for the exciting insights you two!
Did you like our interview with Susanne and Stefanie Renner? If you would like to learn more about other winemakers, please visit our winemakers' page here!