Baden

Here, at the most southerly tip of Baden, the Gutedel comes to the fore as the most important grape variety, taking over from the Burgundian varieties. This grape variety, known in Switzerland as Chasselas, is at best an uncomplicated, soft and at the same time completely dry wine that is particularly easy to combine with a very wide range of foods. However, even the greatest attention to detail will only very rarely produce a really great wine from the Chasselas grape, and for that reason the Burgundian varieties still play a major part in the production of higher-quality wines. As a rule, both the red and white wines produced here are more elegant and sophisticated than those in the neighbouring Baden sub-regions of Kaiserstuhl, Tuniberg and Breisgau, which generally results in the wines being excellent companions to food. The Pinot Noirs, which here are often more similar to their French counterparts than elsewhere in Germany, are usually surprisingly quite cool and lean in comparison with other Baden wines. They can be difficult to approach in their youth, but often show a wonderful development, and often keep longer than do their more muscular cousins from the neighbouring sub-regions.
The leading wine producers here are Schlumberger in Laufen, Lämmlin-Schindler in Mauchen, Ziereisen in Efringen-Kirschen as well as Claus and Susanne Schneider.

(translation by Peter Gebler)