Christian Hirsch Weine e.K.

Hand fruit, one owner at the cellar door

Hand harvest comes before the tank at Christian Hirsch Weine e.K. in Leingarten, where Christian Hirsch works as winemaker, owner and oenologist. The estate sits at the foot of the Heuchelberg, in Württemberg, with the family’s wine culture carried through three generations rather than set apart as a separate trade. Hirsch’s station is broad by design: he makes decisions in the cellar, shapes the house language and remains the named contact for the business. That closeness matters in a small family-run estate, where the hand that chooses the fruit also carries the public voice of the bottle.

His technical base runs through Diplomingenieur studies and time at the Robert Mondavi Institute at the University of California, Davis. From 2013, he worked at Privatkellerei Artur Hirsch in Leingarten as creator of his own line and the phrase “HIRSCH IST WILD,” putting authorship and label identity in the same frame. At Christian Hirsch Weine e.K., that authorship has narrowed into a working method: regional fruit, controlled cellar practice, dry Württemberg wines and names that stay close to the maker’s signature.

Riesling from the 90° Südwest

The house is known for 90° Südwest Leingartener Riesling trocken, a site-specific bottling from old hillside vineyards around Leingarten. The work begins in sun-exposed Württemberg parcels with clay-rich soils, then moves by hand rather than mechanical harvester. The point is not nostalgia. Riesling punishes bruising and uneven ripeness, and the estate’s stated preference for hand picking keeps berry condition at the center of the method.

After harvest, the grapes are sorted, gently crushed and fermented in modern stainless steel tanks at controlled temperatures. The wine then rests for several months on fine lees, a cellar choice that builds texture without turning the white program toward oak. The 90° Südwest Riesling carries 13% ABV, 7.2 g/l acidity and 9.8 g/l residual sugar; the house points to green apple, lime, lemon and fresh ginger in the glass, with mineral notes tied to Leingarten’s clay soils. The wider bench includes Weissburgunder, Chardonnay, Spätburgunder and Shiraz, with oak reserved for red work such as Rot und Wild.

At the foot of the Heuchelberg

The cellar’s atmosphere is quiet, regional and practical, more private cellar than designed stage. Leingarten sits under the Heuchelberg, with vineyards and clay soils close enough that the landscape reads directly into the wines rather than as a backdrop. The room belongs to a family estate: the working vocabulary is trocken, Gutswein, cuvée, lees, stainless steel, barrel, not theatre.

That down-to-earth character suits Hirsch’s range. Kleines Geweih, Edition Junior and HIRSCH IST WILD keep the labels close to his own idiom, while the cellar keeps the whites clean and the reds structured by selective oak. Its work repeats the same gestures: picked fruit, sorted berries, controlled ferment, lees time. The final word here is still the 90° Südwest Leingartener Riesling trocken.