Journal

We have started to import some wine from Germany, the southern region of Franconia specifically. The grower is Martin Hirsch and his wines are all available now.

After nearly a decade living in Frankfurt, working in media and pouring wine at restaurant Emma Metzler on the side, Martin Hirsch returned home to Römerhof — a sleepy village in the north of Bavaria, and the family home for many years. His father made wine of the more conventional variety here, but it was at the restaurant that he had his first encounter natural wine — that special moment where the penny dropped and, as many who have shared the epiphany will attest, shifted his understanding of what wine could be.

It was the pandemic that sent Martin on the journey home as Frankfurt locked down. “When I stood in the vineyard after so many years in the city again, I felt like on LSD” he explains. “A spider descended from me, a deer ran through the lines – there was so much life, and that felt very good in that moment”. The pull of the land proved strong and it was around that time, with his father stepping away from winemaking, that Martin decided it could be possible to make wine of his own.

Read a full profile and find the wines here.