Who makes it
The Keller family comes from Oberbergen and the Reinecker family from Auggen, bringing four named family members to a hands-on project at Istein. Their shared work centres on vines at the Isteiner Klotz, where Burgundy-family grapes and Gutedel are planted on limestone. That combination makes the producer easy to locate in the glass: its grape choices are tied directly to one geological formation.
Weingut am Klotz joined two established Baden wine families when the Kellers and Reineckers took it on. The work now combines a family-operated estate with a site defined by old vines, limestone and a focused grape direction. Hand harvesting, hand selection and low-intervention cellar work keep the attention on fruit arriving from the Klotz, while the documented 2022 Pinot shows how that approach reaches a finished bottle.
Where it grows
Istein lies in Baden, and the Isteiner Klotz is the estate’s central landmark and vineyard setting. It was designated a nature reserve in 1986, placing the vines beside protected landscape as well as within a working wine estate. For Weingut am Klotz, Istein is not merely the address on a label: the Klotz supplies the limestone ground beneath the grape varieties that shape the range.
Jurassic rock layers and varied limestone formations run through the estate’s vineyards. The Isteiner Klotz is described as a Jurassic coral-limestone formation, with vines rooting directly into it; old vines are another defining feature. Coral limestone is therefore not decorative label language here. It is the material beneath the roots of the Burgundy-family varieties, Gutedel and the Pinot Noir used for Kalk & Löss Spätburgunder.
How it is made
The cellar
Hand harvesting and hand selection allow fruit to be sorted before it reaches the cellar, making selection part of the wine’s shape rather than an afterthought. The estate has also been described as being in organic conversion, alongside its low-intervention approach. These practices keep vineyard material central, particularly where old vines grow in direct contact with limestone-rich ground.
The 2022 Kalk & Löss Spätburgunder shows the cellar decisions in unusually concrete terms. It is entirely Pinot Noir, with some whole-cluster fermentation, then twelve months in 228-litre oak barrels. Only a small proportion of those barrels was new. Whole clusters bring stems into the ferment; the limited share of new oak keeps the barrel programme from becoming the wine’s dominant fact.
What they make
The range is built around Burgundy-family varieties and Gutedel from the Isteiner Klotz, rather than around an exhaustive catalogue of named cuvées. That breadth lets the estate work with both the local white grape Gutedel and the Burgundy family’s red and white varieties while keeping coral limestone as the shared vineyard thread.
Kalk & Löss Spätburgunder is the clearest documented red within that direction. The 2022 is pure Pinot Noir, made with a partial whole-cluster component and a year in small oak barrels. Those choices put fruit, stem-derived grip and oak texture into the same bottle, while the small new-oak share keeps the wood treatment measured.
Wines to try
First bottle
Start with the 2022 Kalk & Löss Spätburgunder. It is a fully documented view of Weingut am Klotz: Pinot Noir from the estate’s limestone setting, some whole-cluster fermentation, twelve months in 228-litre barrels and only a small proportion of new oak. Bright cherry-red colour, a youthful palate and a finish shaped by fruit, grip and barrel texture make it a concrete first encounter with the Klotz rather than a generic Baden red.