Their STory

From Orchard to Vine: Weingut Greiner

In the far southwest corner of Germany, where the Rhine River runs alongside the Black Forest, lies Markgräflerland, a narrow strip of vineyard land at the foothills of the Hochblauen, one of the highest peaks in the southern Black Forest. It's a landscape with an ancient relationship to the vine. After the last Ice Age, the meadow forests along the Upper Rhine here were among the first places in the region where wild vines began to grow again.

The Greiner family's own story is far more recent, and far more personal. For years, the family ran a fruit growing business in Schliengen Obereggenen rather than a winery. That changed with Maximilian Greiner, who trained first as a wine cooper before studying viticulture and oenology in Geisenheim, Germany's leading wine school. In 2017, he released his very first vintage under the Greiner name, working just a small parcel of vines alongside the family's fruit orchards.

The following year brought both tragedy and transformation. After the sudden passing of his father in 2018, Max took over the family estate and made an immediate decision: to convert the vineyards fully to organic farming. What began as a side project became the heart of a new direction for the family business.

Farming as a Guiding Principle

For Max, organic and biodynamic farming aren't a stylistic choice. They're the foundation everything else is built on. Today the estate farms roughly one hectare of vines, spread across four distinct single vineyard sites, each named for its specific plot of land: Steingässle in the village of Feuerbach, Paradies in Feldberg Gennenbach, and two separate parcels both called Sonnenstück, one in Obereggenen and another in the Sonnhohle district of Mauchen. Farming such small, scattered plots by hand is demanding, but it lets Max tend each site on its own terms. "A biodynamic country wine, made with love" is how the estate describes its own labels, a simple statement that captures the philosophy behind the work.

Soil and Terroir

Markgräflerland's terroir is shaped above all by loam, loess, and pockets of limestone marl, a gentler, softer geology than the volcanic soils found further north in the Kaiserstuhl. It's this loess and limestone base that gives the region's wines their characteristic finesse rather than raw power, favoring elegance and precision over sheer weight. Within that broader picture, Max's four sites each bring their own subtle differences in exposure, slope, and soil composition, from the more sheltered plots around Feuerbach and Feldberg Gennenbach to the sun exposed Sonnenstück parcels, whose name literally translates to "sun piece." Farming these varied plots individually rather than as a single blended vineyard is central to Max's approach, allowing each site's particular character, whether a touch more mineral tension or a rounder, riper expression, to come through distinctly in the glass rather than being smoothed over.

That same care extends beyond the vineyard. Small remaining parts of the family's original orchard are still farmed today, their fruit distilled into spirits such as Williams pear, plum, and mirabelle brandy in the estate's own distillery, a living link to the business Max's family ran for generations before wine became the focus.

Together with his wife, Anna, Max is building a young, artisanal estate defined by patience rather than volume: modest yields, close attention to each individual site, and a refusal to rush what the land and the seasons take their time to produce. It's an approach that has already earned Weingut Greiner a reputation as one of the most exciting new voices among Baden's country winegrowers, known for wines like a mineral, almost seaweed toned Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir called Vulkan that has quickly become a standout of the collection.

From an old fruit farm to a biodynamic vineyard built on care and conviction, Weingut Greiner is a small estate with a clear sense of purpose: to let a handful of hectares across Markgräflerland speak as honestly as possible.

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