BERGKLOSTER
GERMANY | RHEINHESSEN
Young, passionate, with heart and a bit of swagger, Jason is part of a group of young winemakers that want to rocket the wine region of Rheinhessen with natural, terroir driven wines into the future - which means back to nature!
Rheinhessen is one of the most beautiful parts of Germany, as they also call it “the land of thousand hills”. Wine has been produced for a long time here, supposedly brought in by the Romans. It’s one of the oldest wine regions in Germany and tradition is written in capital letters. But how much is tradition worth, if there can’t be room for new thoughts? Lucky for us, there is!
Jason is the best example. Cool, hip, with a clear vision and heaps of respect for what was and what is yet to come. He marks the 5th generation of winemakers at Bergkloster, “abbey on the hill” in German, which has been in their family for over 120 years.
Jason knew from day one he wanted to follow the steps of his father, yet when he applied at Geisenheim, one of the world's leading viticulture and oenology universities, he still had a big mountain to climb. All started with a work placement at Wittmann, where he learned the ropes, after that Geisenheim and then back to the family business.
The winery has been working organically since 2006, where he could retain 3ha vines for himself out of 7.7ha. After many trial and errors, he produced his first ever vintage in 2014. But there was something missing. He wanted the wines to express more life, more love, more energy! So he realised the way forward was only low intervention! In 2018, he went completely au naturel, without filtering nor fining his wines and absolutely no addition of sulphites.
