Pioneers of the East
Martin Schwarz and Grit Geißler are something rarely found in winemaking: career-changers without family tradition who have built a top estate in twenty years — and in a region most wine lovers had barely on their radar until recently. Saxony. Germany's easternmost wine region. Small, cool, distinctive — and with a terroir found nowhere else in the country.
The two began in 2005 with half a hectare of steep slope on the Meißner Kapitelberg. Today they farm six hectares in the best vineyards along the Sächsische Weinstraße — and since 2022 they have been members of the VDP. An admission that says a great deal in the German wine establishment: Saxony can produce top wine.
The Vineyards — Granite, Steep Slopes, Stillness
What makes the Schwarz wines so unmistakable begins in the soil: red granite — more precisely, granite weathering soils with components of quartzite and slate. This geology is found in this form nowhere else in German winemaking. It gives the wines their characteristic minerality, an almost stony depth, and a cool clarity associated more with great Burgundies or top Styrian whites than with classical Saxon wine.
The main vineyards: FRIEDSTEIN in Radebeul (VDP.GROSSE LAGE), KAPITELBERG in Meißen (VDP.GROSSE LAGE), the Bauernberge in Merbitz (VDP.ERSTE LAGE), and parcels in Diesbar-Seußlitz. All steep slopes. All hand-worked. All on the slopes of the Elbe, with the microclimate only a river can give.
Friedstein — A Rebirth
The story of FRIEDSTEIN is one of the most beautiful in modern German winemaking. For 85 years the historic steep slope in Radebeul lay fallow — overgrown, forgotten, almost forest. Then came Martin and Grit, with tools, patience, and vision. Trees cleared, roots removed, dry stone walls rebuilt — all in painstaking hand-work, stone by stone.
Today FRIEDSTEIN is their most important vineyard and produces the estate's VDP.GROSSEN GEWÄCHSE: a Riesling and a Pinot Noir that count among the most expressive wines in Saxony. To turn an 85-year fallow plot back into a top vineyard — that's not done for money. That's done out of conviction.
In the Cellar — Time, Patience, Dilligence
Martin works in the cellar with a clear line: minimal intervention, long ageing in oak (top cuvées up to 18 months), late bottling, no fining, no filtering where it isn't required. He is often praised for his masterful handling of oak — wood that you never taste as "wood" in his wines, but as structure, depth, calm.
The result is wines that need time — and reward time. Lean, precise, straight, with the minerality of granite as their backbone. Saxony's answer to the question of what German top wine can be today.
The Wines in Our Selection
At Wein & Nielsen we carry the complete main line. The three VDP.GROSSEN GEWÄCHSE: FRIEDSTEIN Riesling, KAPITELBERG Riesling, FRIEDSTEIN Pinot Noir. The VDP.ERSTES GEWÄCHS Bauernberge Weißburgunder from Merbitz. The Radebeul Blaufränkisch — his new red wine, placed at the regional top from its first tasting. The Friedstein Chardonnay, compared by critics to Meursault. The elegant Roter Granit Riesling as an entry into the world of Saxon granite. The off-dry RZ26 Riesling, the Rosarot Rosé — and as something special, the Reserve 52 Chardonnay Brut Nature: a Sekt made from the estate's finest grapes, traditional bottle fermentation.
The Region — And Why It Matters
Saxon winemaking is old — the slopes along the Elbe were planted as early as the Middle Ages — but for a long time the region was a well-kept secret. Only 500 hectares of vineyards in total, cool continental climate, short growing season, steep slopes that demand hand-work. That makes Saxony small. But that's exactly what makes it exciting.
If you have never had Saxon wine in your glass, Martin Schwarz is the ideal entry point. If you know and love Saxony, you already know why these wines have a permanent place with us.
Stone by Stone
Whoever visits Martin and Grit in Meißen or Radebeul meets two people whose excitement for every detail is unmistakable — and the humility that only emerges when you really work with your hands. In their wines you taste exactly that: the stone, the slope, the Elbe — and two pioneers who haven't stopped digging.
Our Selection — Direct from the Estate
At Wein & Nielsen we carry the current vintages direct from the estate. Hand-selected, in small quantities, cellar-door prices.
