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5 minutes with... Our interview with Christine Pieroth aka Piri

Anyone who has spent a little time with Piri quickly asks the question: Is there anything that this person can't do? We got to know her through her wines, of course, but it quickly became clear that she is up to a lot more in the tranquil village of Burglayen on the Nahe. 

As Goethe already remarked, "Why wander far and wide? The good lies so near."Today we know even more: The good lies on the Nahe, with the charming Christine Pieroth a.k.a. Piri, to be exact. The trained winemaker with a pronounced weakness (or should we say strength!) for honeybees is a real go-getter and bubbling source of creative inspiration. And all this in the midst of one of the most traditional wine regions in Germany, where there are currently still very few natural wines.

Having grown up with classic wines, Piri has in recent years found herself more and more involved in a holistic approach to agriculture, and today she is trying to transfer her experience and knowledge to the family farm, which is steeped in history, piece by piece. 

8gb: Hello dear Piri, nice of you to take a few minutes to answer our questions. For those who don't know your wines yet, what makes them so special in your eyes?

Piri: "Um, what exactly do you mean by special?.. For me, everything is connected: The way I handle our vineyards and wines also corresponds to the way I live. I simply try to reflect a lifestyle as holistic and close to nature as possible with my wines."

8gb: What do you like to eat with your wines? What pairings do you like?

Piri: "So many things - but no tomatoes!"

A natural change

8gb: Did it come natural for you to produce natural wine, or how did it come about?

Piri: "It wasn't the obvious choice, since I grew up with completely different wines and no one else here produces natural wine. But through my own ideas of life and values, my personal interest, it then somehow developed quite automatically. I tried a lot in that direction, kept asking questions and simply did it."

Wine barrels with candles

8gb: What's one of the biggest life lessons you've had the opportunity to learn so far since making your own wines?

Piri: "TIME IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN STUFF"

8gb: If you had the opportunity to start all over again today, would you do anything differently?

Piri: "Hmm, not really. Sure, things go wrong sometimes, but luckily you learn from your mistakes (laughs)."

8gb: We know your wines quite a bit already, but we see so many other exciting projects from you on Instagram all the time. What are you working on at the moment?

Piri: "Ingeneral, self-sufficiency is an important and also time-consuming hobby of mine: bee colonies, vegetables, fruit, jams and lactic fermentations. In addition, wild herbs for tea blends & tinctures, the first own ointments I have just made from them. And all this I would also like to share with more people! A few years ago I started to grow some potatoes on a field. Many people from the village find this totally exciting and like to come by, because only a few still know how and where such a potato actually grows! It sounds crazy, but many children really don't know anymore, because even in the countryside there is very little contact with agriculture."

"I would like to counteract this and strengthen this contact and appreciation for good food again. Otherwise, whenever time permits, I like to paint, draw, carve or work with clay. At the moment, I'm also involved in making natural ink from plants and dye plants."

8gb: That all sounds super exciting! Can you tell us something else about how your beautiful labels are created?

Piri: "Yes, very much! In the vineyard, of course, the vine plays the main role. But there is so much more going on. I'm very interested in herbs and their use, and when we changed the soil management, it became totally alive in the vineyard again! Native grasses and herbs, flowers and - attracted by all this - also many insects and other, smaller animals such as pheasants and many more, which find a habitat here again. And I think this liveliness in the vineyard also comes through in the wine."

There is nature in it

Piri: "All this I wanted to put on the label. Since I do some painting and linocuts myself, I printed the collected plants. The digitized originals thus now adorn my wines."

Piri Naturel wine bottles

8gb: It's nice how everything flows together for you! What can we expect from you in the future?

Piri: "Inprinciple, everything I said before. I would like to give even more space and time for culture and its development on our farm. Culture should not be something you experience a few times a year, for example, when you go to the theater. Culture happens in everyday life. It is on our doorstep! We are shaped by our culture, but we can and should also actively shape and help shape it ourselves. For me, preserving as well as creating is an inseparable part of it. It is a process, a development in which everyone is invited to participate. It cannot be that a few make culture and the many others consume culture. It must be lived together!"

Thank you for the exciting insights, dear Piri. We are already looking forward to everything we will see from you!

Did you like our interview with Piri? If you want to learn more about other winemakers, you can visit our winemakers page here.

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