Germany · Baden

Weingut Markus Riedlin

A biodynamic Baden estate in Laufen, devoted entirely to Spätburgunder from family vineyards tended since 1656.

The producer

Weingut Markus Riedlin works in Laufen, southern Baden, at the foothills of the Black Forest. Markus Kuntz-Riedlin took over the family vineyards in 2009 and has farmed them with Sybille Kuntz since 2010. The estate grows only Spätburgunder—Pinot Noir—and has held Demeter biodynamic certification since 2018. Its named sites include Laufener Altenberg, Britzinger Sonnhole and Seefeldener Maltesergarten, with a substantial share of vines on loess and clay-limestone soils.

That single-grape focus runs through dry red, rosé and pét-nat. Riedlin Rot uses extended skin contact and French-barrique ageing, giving mature examples such as the 2015 a dry palate, fine tannin and a dark-mineral finish. The 2024 Rosé Pétillant Naturel is 100% Pinot Noir, bottle-fermented, unfiltered and made without additions, with perlage and mousse replacing the red wine’s tannin and oak-shaped texture.

Known for

Biodynamic Baden Spätburgunder in dry red, rosé and bottle-fermented pét-nat forms.

Notable facts

The story

The 2010 return to bottling

Markus Kuntz-Riedlin took over his parents’ vineyards in 2009. At the 2010 harvest, the family made its first bottled Riedlin wine in generations: a Spätburgunder from the Laufen vineyards. The wine spent 15 months in French barriques before release. Markus and Sybille Kuntz had begun farming the estate together that same year, and the bottle carried the Riedlin name on a Pinot Noir made from the family’s Baden land. The estate label derives from a painting by Adolf Riedlin, so the wine’s return to estate bottling also put a family artwork back on the bottle.

From the atlas

Weingut Markus Riedlin

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Markus Riedlin works family vineyards in Laufen that have been tended by the Riedlins since 1656. Markus Kuntz-Riedlin brought Geisenheim training to the estate when he took over in 2009, then joined Sybille Kuntz in farming it from 2010. Their narrow focus on Spätburgunder keeps the range anchored to one grape: the same Pinot Noir can become dry red wine, rosé or bottle-fermented pét-nat, with the cellar choice changing the finished bottle.

Place

Laufen sits in southern Baden at the foothills of the Black Forest, in Markus Kuntz-Riedlin’s home area of Markgräflerland. The estate does not spread its attention across varieties: Spätburgunder is planted and bottled in several forms. This gives the wines a clear local thread, from the dry reds raised in French barriques to the rosé pét-nat fermented in its own bottle.

Soil And Site

The estate names Laufener Altenberg, Britzinger Sonnhole and Seefeldener Maltesergarten among its vineyard sites. Demeter describes a substantial share of Riedlin’s Spätburgunder vines as among the oldest in Markgräflerland, planted on a massive loess formation; its profile also records clay-limestone soils. Those are distinct ground descriptions rather than one blended soil claim, and they matter because Pinot Noir is the only grape Riedlin asks these sites to ripen.

Story

The family history reaches back to 1656, but the modern estate took shape after Markus Kuntz-Riedlin assumed responsibility for his parents’ vineyards in 2009. From 2010, he and Sybille Kuntz farmed the Baden property together, pairing a family vineyard inheritance with Markus’s enological training. The decision narrowed rather than widened the project: Riedlin cultivates only Spätburgunder, then lets red-wine extraction, rosé production and bottle fermentation provide the variety within the range.

The bottle label carries another family trace. It derives from a painting by Adolf Riedlin, placing a visual family work on wines made from the family’s Laufen vineyards. The label is not a separate branding story from the wine: it appears on bottles whose grape, land and estate history are all held within one Pinot Noir-focused project.

Vineyards And Cellar

Riedlin has held Demeter biodynamic certification since 2018, a formal farming standard applied to vineyards whose old Spätburgunder plantings are central to the estate. In the cellar, the red-wine method is documented most clearly for Riedlin Rot: fermentation is followed by extended skin contact and ageing in French barriques. Keeping the skins in contact with the fermenting Pinot Noir builds colour and tannin, while the barriques give the wine time to develop before bottling.

The 2024 Riedlin Rosé Pétillant Naturel takes the same grape in another direction. It is 100% Pinot Noir, fermented in bottle, unfiltered and made without additions as described by the producer. Bottle fermentation retains a natural perlage, so its structure comes from mousse and freshness rather than from the dry red’s skin-derived grip and barrel ageing.

Wines

Riedlin Rot Spätburgunder and Riedlin Rot are the dry-red side of the estate, where Pinot Noir receives fermentation, extended skin contact and French-barrique élevage. Riedlin Rot 2015 shows the method in mature form: a dry red with fine tannins and a dark-mineral finish, rather than a simple fruit-led Pinot Noir.

Riedlin Rosé gives the estate’s sole grape a lighter-coloured expression, while Riedlin Rosé Pétillant Naturel 2024 turns Pinot Noir into sparkling wine through bottle fermentation. The pét-nat’s no-additions, unfiltered approach and perlage put mousse at the centre of the experience. These bottles are not competing rank levels: they are different answers to what one Baden Spätburgunder grape can do in red, rosé and sparkling form.

In The Glass

The 2015 Riedlin Rot is a mature, dry Spätburgunder with fine tannin and a dark-mineral finish. Extended skin contact supplies the red wine’s tannin framework, and French-barrique ageing gives it a settled, mature shape; the result is more about dry texture, grip and finish than sweetness or fizz.

The 2024 Rosé Pétillant Naturel moves through a different sequence. Bottle fermentation creates perlage, and its unfiltered, no-additions production leaves the focus on Pinot Noir fruit, mousse and dry sparkling texture. It should not be read as a small version of the red: the same grape arrives with bubbles rather than oak, lees-related bottle fermentation rather than barrique ageing, and a lighter physical feel.

A Bottle To Understand It

Begin with Riedlin Rot Spätburgunder 2015. It is a dry Baden Pinot Noir that joins the estate’s single-grape focus to its documented red-wine work: fermentation, extended skin contact and French-barrique ageing. In the glass, fine tannins carry a mature palate towards a dark-mineral finish. It comes first because it places Laufen’s family vineyards, Markus Kuntz-Riedlin’s cellar training and the estate’s return to bottling inside one red wine.

Anecdote

After Markus Kuntz-Riedlin took over his parents’ vineyards in 2009, the 2010 harvest brought a family first in generations. The Riedlins bottled their own wine: a Spätburgunder rather than wine left solely as vineyard fruit. For that first modern Riedlin bottling, the Pinot Noir spent 15 months in French barriques. Markus had taken charge of the Laufen vineyards only the year before; by the time the 2010 wine was released, the family land carried a bottle under the Riedlin name again, with Pinot Noir, barrel ageing and estate bottling all recorded in the wine itself.

Final Word

Riedlin offers a concentrated way into southern Baden Pinot Noir: one family estate, one grape and several bottle forms. Choose the mature Rot for dry tannin and dark-mineral finish; choose the pét-nat when Pinot Noir’s bottle-fermented mousse is the point of interest.

Sources

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