Joachim Wolf
"Wine is an extraordinary thing. It has a stimulating effect, sharpens the senses and opens up a whole world of flavors and sensations. Wine tells stories, about ist territory, and even the winemaker who produces it. I dedicate myself to winemaking in order to live through this fascinating passion, to transmit it to others and share it with them. I like to see my wines as a source of inspiration, able to reawake the senses of those who enjoy them. Considering that the wine-growing area of Oberstein offers a rich terrain full of peculiarities, I try within to arrive at wines that reflect the charactistics of the soil and vineyards in the glass.

The wine-growing estate of Oberstein is located on the Insubric line which marks the boundary between the Eurasian and African tectonic plate. The extreme climactic conditions that prevailed millions of years ago caused the rupture and disintegration of the solid granite in the area. It was at that time that this particular terrain on the slopes of our mountains was born. Today, we can see a singular shape, as the steep southeastern slopes rise around us like a natural amphitheater.

After many generations of winemaking, the challenge that we pursue today is to enhance this particular soil and bring forth ist unmistakable characteristics. The light and permeable sandy clay soil is intersected by porous slate material that sometimes takes the form of protruding rocks. Thus, at the base of my wines there are minerals, especially strongly weathered elements of quartzite, feldspar and mica, given to the soil by the porous local granite rock.

This terroir, combined with a remarkable temperature differential between day and night, especially in the fall, results in a highly unique environment of ist type, giving rise to excellent wines of great impact. These factors, together with my extensive winemaking philosophy as applied both in the vineyard and in the cellar, ensure that my distinctive wines are strongly linked to their terroir and help to reveal their unique character: their expression, their power, their mineral nature. That is me, and that is Oberstein."