Outstanding Vinotheks Details

Radical change landed here in May 2016, when siblings Katharina Pollmer and Matthias Schuh took over the estate from their parents Walter and Martina. Katharina, as a restaurant management expert and sommelière, was named the new director of marketing and sales. Matthias, an oenologist and winemaker, agreed to handle the cellar work and was tasked with heading out into the steep vineyards of the Spaar Mountains to ensure that only the finest vines survive. It was an important but smooth transition — from the first generation to the second. 

The last big year of change was back in 1990, when Germany reunited and winemaker Walter Schuh, then 35, headed from the Mosel to the Elbe to found his estate in the small town of Sörnewitz, near Meißen. He painstakingly renovated the badly weathered half-timber house (erected 1819) and winery building from 1874. Some years later, in 1997, he and his wife opened the "Zur Bosel" wine restaurant with attached pension. He acquired the neighboring Dreiseitenhof in 2008, which today — following an intense renovation — houses the vinothek, which Walter Schuh now oversees following his withdrawal from the vineyard and cellar. 

One special feature of the wine program is the Schieler, a rosé-tinted wine with raspberry and strawberry aromas. It can rightly be defined as a Rotling, produced from both red and white grapes. The name is protected and may only be made by Sachsen winegrowers. It is said to once have been the drink of choice for the pupils at the Sankt Afra Fürstenschule in Meißen, hence the name: "Schieler" means "student" in the Saxon dialect. 

Another Sachsen specialty is the Goldriesling, a distinct variety available almost only here and significantly lighter and milder than its better known big brother, the White Riesling. 

By local standards, the share of red wine is extremely high, with almost a third of the five hectares in the Klausenberg (monopole) and Kapitelberg planted with red varieties. The estate's calling card is the rare Dunkelfelder, which is only grown in Sachsen at Weingut Schuh. The vineyards are cultivated exclusively using organic methods. The company is a member of the "Environmental Alliance of the Free State of Saxony" and in 2001 became the first winegrowing operation to be commended for its sustainable, environmentally friendly work by the Environmental and Agricultural Ministry. 

The transition to the next generation is also moving forward apace: the Bordeaux red of the estate's colors have been brightened into a fresh purple — as a sign of the breakthrough to a new age, in which Katharina Pollmer and Matthias Schuh add their own chapters to their parents' success story.