Welcome to the first post as part of our new series: Whose Wine is it Anyway?
Every month, we’ll profile one German winemaker to give you a behind-the-vines look at the world of German wine. First up – in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 – is one of Germany’s most buzzed-about young women winemakers, Julia Bertram of the Ahr region!
Estate: Weingut Bertram-Baltes (formerly Weingut Julia Bertram)
Region: The Ahr
Village: Dernau
Focus: Spätburgunder
Born on Christmas Eve in 1989, Julia grew up in Dernau in the German wine region of the Ahr – one of the smallest and most northerly regions of Germany’s 13 official wine regions.
Wine was always a part of Julia’s life – Her family has grown and produced wine in the Ahr Valley for more than a century. She interned at the nearby Meyer-Näkel estate after graduating high school and went on to study viticulture and oenology at the acclaimed Geisenheim Institute in the Rheingau region. Soon after receiving her degree, Julia was elected the 64th German Wine Queen, serving as international ambassador for the German Wine Institute from 2012-2013 (Fun fact: Julia’s grandmother Rosemarie was elected Dernau’s wine queen in 1959!).
She then returned to the family business as the fifth generation to lead the estate, producing her first line of wines in 2014, taking over the estate from her mother and aunt in 2017, and switching to organic viticulture in 2019.
Julia’s parents and aunt continue to support the business, joined by Julia’s husband, Benedikt Baltes. Benedikt is also a winemaker from the Ahr with a similar passion for Pinot Noir. He currently splits his time between the Julia Bertram estate and Weingut Steintal – formerly Stadt Klingenberg – in Franken.
With Benedikt joining the Bertram family estate, Weingut Julia Bertram is officially changing the name to Weingut Bertram-Baltes as of March 2020.
In keeping with the tradition of the Ahr, where 4 out of every 5 bottles of wine are red, Julia focuses on Pinot Noir, or Spätburgunder in German. Her vines grow on a total of 6.8 hectares on 11 sites along the Ahr River, focusing on the steep slopes of predominantly slate and greywacke soil.
She describes her wine style as mineral, firm, and elegant. Her Pinots often have fine, almost floral aromas and show cool, subtle acidity. A lover of mature wines, she produces wines fit for a long life: old vines, reduced yields, hand-picked grapes, avoiding pure yeasts, and careful, long aging in wooden barrels only from coopers she knows personally.
“My wines should inspire with their authenticity. Soil, weather, the work in the vineyard, the story of a year and part of my personality later show up in the glass.”
— Julia Bertram
