Behind the vine

Julia Schittler - Schittler-Becker / Julia Schittler - Rheinhessen, Germany

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

My parents both have a winery (one in Zornheim and one in Weinolsheim, 10 km apart) and so I got to know the wine world from childhood on. I always had an interest in the wine farm and helped parents growing up. In my early 20s I had a wild phase and wanted to see the world outside our area. I wanted to learn to be a winemaker by doing. I learnt every year in the vineyards where I was an apprentice - different styles.

In 2015, when I came back to our family farm, I wanted to take over the business. My parents gave me freedom in the wine cellar. I was my own boss. The Schittler-Becker wines are easy-drinking. It’s been an approachable line of wines for generations. But I thought something was missing. Another step in the pyramid. I wanted to create a wine that would always be fresh and beautiful through the years. So something new was created in the winery and the Julia Schittler wine line was born.

And I can say – I love my job!! It is never boring and there is always something to do: from the work in the wineyards, up to the work in the cellar and of course the office to sell the wine. It is a mix of work in the nature (on your own) as well as meeting people and customers. I don’t want to miss a single part of it.

What story does your wine tell?

For me wine definitely needs history and emotions. When I got into the winery, I created my own new wines and for the first time I thought about how I would explain those wines to people. I thought back to drinking with my girlfriends and they’d always ask me ‘Julia, what should I be smelling?’. So I came up with the idea to put the characteristics of the wines on the label - precisely for this reason: every wine has a story. The Julia Schittler label is very important that wine has emotion and a story.

The characteristics that you can see on the label of Julia Schittler wines reflect the soil on which the vineyard grows, flora and fauna of the vineyard, animals that you see in the vineyard at work and the aroma of the wine.

For example on the label of my favorite wine Sylvaner you can see that it grows on lime and clay soil. Poppies grow in the vineyard and you can often see a fox there. The vineyard is over 30 years old and in the wine cellar it is fermented spontaneously in large wooden barrels. Thus it has a delicate herbal aroma that is depicted on the label.

Earlier this year I came up with the idea to make a short video about every single of the Julia Schittler line and for what it stands for; which than I put on the label of the wine bottles.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

That wine comes from the tap and therefore can be so cheap...Behind every good wine there is a whole year of work from the vineyard to the cellar. In addition, the heart and soul a winemaker puts into it.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

That wine brings people together (connects positively) and that everyone basically can talk about it. Wine is a philosophy and every wine tells a story.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

From my point of view it is important that you believe in yourself and have an idea of where you want to go. But this is certainly not only a good advice in the winemaking world. 😉 There will certainly be setbacks, but the important thing is to keep getting up and learning from your mistakes.

I think we women should support and help each other. I always see what a great network men have and I hope that one day women will have exactly the same.

Where can women find your wine?

We have many great wine dealers all over Germany who have our wines in their selves. We are very grateful for all of them.

On our homepage or in our online shop you will find a dealer search with wine shops in your area.