Germany · Baden

Weinhaus Bettina Schumann

A Kaiserstuhl producer founded in 2015, making Baden wines from selected growers’ grapes with natural-yeast fermentation, wooden barrels and extended ageing.

The producer

Weinhaus Bettina Schumann began in the Kaiserstuhl without inherited vineyard land. Bettina Schumann selects grapes from growers she knows and makes the wines in rented cellar space; spontaneous fermentation, wooden barrels and long ageing provide a common thread from one bottle to the next. Since April 2018, she and sommelier Melanie Panitzke have run the business together.

The red-shoe labels are for everyday wines, while gold-shoe labels mark bottles for special occasions. The range includes Burgundy varieties, sparkling wine and special releases: Famose Schose à la Pink 2019 is a barrique-matured Grauburgunder with nutty aroma, while Pét-Nat Rosé and Spätburgunder Haute Volaute take the cellar into mousse and red-wine territory. Brisk acidity balanced by fruit is the house’s stated style, with barrel choices adjusted to avoid an overly woody taste.

Known for

Selected Kaiserstuhl fruit shaped by natural yeasts, tailored barrel ageing and brisk acidity balanced by fruit.

Notable facts

The story

The 1905 Vin Santo

When Bettina Schumann was 12, she was on a family holiday in Italy and tasted a Vin Santo from 1905. The bottle was already many decades old, but its freshness struck her. It was an encounter with an old sweet wine while travelling with her family, long before she founded Weinhaus Bettina Schumann in the Kaiserstuhl in 2015. Schumann later made the first wine under her own label in 2017, and Melanie Panitzke joined the business the following year. The childhood tasting remains part of Schumann’s biography: a 1905 Vin Santo, tasted in Italy, remembered for freshness.

From the atlas

Weinhaus Bettina Schumann

At A Glance

The Producer

Weinhaus Bettina Schumann is a young Baden producer founded in the Kaiserstuhl in 2015. Bettina Schumann began without family-held vineyard land, so each wine starts with grapes bought from selected sites farmed by growers she knows, then takes shape in rented cellar space. That structure puts selection at the centre of the bottle: the grape source can change, while fermentation, barrel choice and ageing provide continuity across the range.

Since April 2018, Schumann has worked with Melanie Panitzke, a sommelier, in a two-woman operation. The result is not an estate built around one named vineyard, but a producer whose labels follow Burgundy varieties, sparkling wine and small special releases through a shared cellar approach.

Place

The Kaiserstuhl sits within Baden, and that regional address is the starting point on every Weinhaus Bettina Schumann label. For this producer, place arrives through selected growers rather than a single estate holding: a Grauburgunder, a Pét-Nat Rosé and a Spätburgunder can each begin in a different chosen site before reaching the same cellar. The label therefore matters alongside the regional name, because it tells which grape and bottle style the grapes became.

The current base is in Königschaffhausen, in the Kaiserstuhl. It is a practical home for a business built without inherited land: fruit comes in from growers, then the work of fermentation, wood and ageing determines whether it becomes an everyday red-shoe wine, a gold-shoe bottle or a special release.

Soil And Site

No single soil type can stand in for this range, because Schumann does not claim one estate vineyard as the source of every label. Site selection happens bottle by bottle through the growers supplying the grapes. The Pét-Nat Rosé has its own documented site and production details, while the barrique-aged Grauburgunder and Spätburgunder belong to different wine decisions; treating them as one geological story would flatten the differences in the glass.

That makes the named wine more useful than a broad soil claim. A label bearing Grauburgunder points toward a white Burgundy variety and barrel maturation; a Spätburgunder label points toward Pinot Noir; Pét-Nat signals a sparkling wine made by a different route. Site is part of each bottle’s starting material, not a decorative claim applied to the whole cellar.

Story

Bettina Schumann was born in Berlin in 1982 and founded her Kaiserstuhl winery in 2015. Alongside the new business, she has worked as a consulting flying winemaker for wineries and large cooperatives in Germany and abroad. Her own first labelled wine followed in 2017; Melanie Panitzke joined the following year.

Without inherited vines or a family cellar, Schumann built the work around relationships with growers and decisions made after harvest. Selected fruit enters rented cellar space, ferments with natural yeasts, spends time in wood and is held back for longer ageing. The consequence is a range connected less by one parcel than by a repeated aim: fruit carried by brisk acidity, with oak used as part of the frame rather than a flavour laid over it.

Vineyards And Cellar

Schumann buys grapes from selected sites farmed by friendly growers, then makes the wines in rented cellar space. That arrangement makes vineyard choice a recurring task rather than a fixed inheritance: the fruit must be selected before the cellar can preserve its character.

Fermentation starts spontaneously with natural yeasts. The wines then mature in wooden barrels and receive long ageing. Schumann selects the wood, barrel size and proportion of barriques individually, specifically to avoid excessive oak impact. In practical terms, the barrel is intended to support fruit and texture instead of covering them with a heavy woody taste. The house’s stated style—brisk acidity balanced by fruit—has room to show through because the wood programme is adjusted wine by wine.

Wines

The red-shoe, or Rotschuh, labels are the everyday branch of the range; gold-shoe, or Goldschuh, labels are reserved for wines intended for special occasions. Special releases sit separately, allowing the cellar to make room for bottles that do not fit the two main label signals.

Within that structure, the wines move through Burgundy varieties and sparkling wine. Famose Schose à la Pink 2019 is Grauburgunder matured in barrique, with nutty aroma noted in professional tasting material. That combination brings a white grape and wood together: the wine’s fruit is joined by a nutty, barrel-shaped note rather than presented as a purely fresh, stainless-steel style.

Pét-Nat Rosé brings sparkling wine into the range, while Spätburgunder Haute Volaute 2018 provides a red-wine expression from Pinot Noir. These are different bottle roles, but the cellar thread remains the same: natural-yeast fermentation, wood where selected and time before release.

In The Glass

Across the range, the useful starting point is acidity and fruit. The house describes the wines through brisk acidity balanced by fruit, so the palate should not be read as fruit sweetness alone: acidity keeps the mouthfeel moving and carries the finish. Wooden-barrel ageing can add weight and texture, but Schumann’s individual barrel choices are designed to prevent oak from taking over.

The 2019 Famose Schose à la Pink offers the clearest specific aroma cue: nuttiness around Grauburgunder fruit. On the palate, barrique maturation suggests a broader texture than a simple light white, while the house style points back toward acidity rather than softness. Pét-Nat Rosé changes the texture through mousse, and Spätburgunder moves the range into red-fruit-and-tannin territory; the bottle, not a generic producer description, determines where those structural elements land.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose the 2019 Famose Schose à la Pink. It is a Grauburgunder matured in barrique, and its recorded nutty aroma makes the cellar decision immediately tangible. The wine joins white-fruit character with barrel-derived texture and a nutty edge, while the producer’s brisk-acidity-and-fruit approach keeps the oak from becoming the whole story. It is a useful first bottle because grape, barrel and house style are all legible in one glass.

Anecdote

When Bettina Schumann was 12, she was on a family holiday in Italy and tasted a Vin Santo from 1905. The wine was already many decades old, yet what stayed with her was its freshness. It was not a cellar tasting arranged around her future work, nor a bottle carrying her own name: it was an old Tuscan sweet wine encountered while travelling with her family. The moment remained part of her biography as she later moved into wine, founded her Kaiserstuhl business in 2015 and made the first wine under her own label in 2017.

Final Word

Weinhaus Bettina Schumann is worth seeking out for wines shaped from selected Kaiserstuhl fruit rather than inherited acreage. Follow the shoe on the label for the range level, then follow the grape and bottle style: Grauburgunder with nutty barrique character, lively Pét-Nat Rosé, or Spätburgunder with red-wine grip.

Sources

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