The Wild One & the 80-Year Press

The story of Andi Weigand is a story of generational trust — of a father who was the first in his family to make wine, and of a son who was the first to break with convention and receive not resistance but encouragement. Werner Weigand founded the family winery in Iphofen in 1990 — a Franconian village in northern Bavaria, nestled in the Steigerwald forest, where the Main River winds through hills of Keuper marl and limestone. Werner was the first generation to turn the family's grapes into bottled wine, building a modest estate on the slopes of the Iphöfer Kronsberg and establishing a reputation for solid, traditional Franconian wines. His son Andi grew up among the vines, but like many young Franconians, he left for college, where he discovered natural wine through visits to like-minded producers with his friends.

In 2015, Andi returned to take over the winemaking duties from his father. The transition was not a battle but an alliance. Werner, unusually for his generation and his region, was open-minded and supportive of Andi's desire to move toward organic and natural winemaking. In a village of twenty-five wineries where convention still dominates, this support was rare and precious. Andi converted the estate to organic farming in 2018 — the first natural vintage — and has since moved toward biodynamic practices, making Weingut Weigand the only biodynamic estate in Iphofen. Today, father and son work as a team: Andi directs all production decisions, while Werner works in the background, providing experience, labour, and the quiet confidence that allows a young winemaker to experiment without fear of familial rupture.

Andi's community has been vital to his development. He is close friends with 2Naturkinder — the pioneering natural winemakers of Franken who are practically neighbours — and with the Brand Brothers, fellow travellers in the German natural wine movement. Together they share ideas, motivate each other, and have created 77&friends, a wine festival of seven young Franconian winemakers held at Iphofen's historic Rödelseer Tor. This is not a solitary venture; it is a collective growth, a regional awakening, and a proof that the natural wine movement in Germany is not an imported fashion but a native revolution. Andi is part of the new wave of "college-escapee" winemakers sweeping Germany, overturning old expectations of his homeland's wine with a definite sense of place.

The cellar itself is a monument to this philosophy. Housed in a building dating back to the 1600s, it contains a 100-year-old direct press and an 80-year-old basket press — machines that demand physical effort, patience, and respect for the grape. Andi ages the majority of his wine in large German oak barrels (1250 litres), just as was done seventy years ago, rejecting the stainless steel uniformity that has overtaken much of German winemaking. He has also begun experimenting with clay amphora and qvevri — vessels that connect him to the ancient traditions of Georgia and the Jura, and that produce wines of startling texture and honesty. The result is a portfolio that is fresh, reviving, cloudily alive, and deeply rooted in the Keuper soils of the Iphöfer Kronsberg.

The guiding philosophy of Andi Weigand is expressed in absolute simplicity: 100% organic, 100% hand-picked, 100% spontaneous fermentation, zero sulfur, zero filtration, zero fining. This is not a reaction against modernity; it is a return to the oldest possible methodology, informed by the 80-year-old basket press, the 1600s cellar, and the large German oak barrels that have aged Franconian wine for generations. Andi wants his wines to be fresh, reviving, and clean — not in the sterile sense of laboratory analysis, but in the living sense of wines that are errorless because the process is honest, the grapes are healthy, and the cellar is clean.

The methodology is deliberately primitive and rigorously clean. Harvest is entirely manual, carried out grape by grape across the ten hectares of Keuper slopes. The grapes are transported immediately to the cellar and pressed — whites through the 100-year-old direct press or the 80-year-old basket press, reds and skin-contact wines through the basket press after maceration. The juice is transferred to 10-year-old 1250-litre German oak barrels (or, for the amphora wines, to Tava clay amphora or qvevri) where it ferments spontaneously with indigenous yeasts. The whites are left for 10 months on the full lees in barrel, developing texture, complexity, and a subtle creaminess without the heaviness of new oak. The reds and skin-contact wines are macerated for 9 months in amphora or qvevri — whole-bunch, with 50% destemmed by hand and 50% kept as whole clusters — then pressed and bottled.

The commitment to zero sulfur extends to every stage: no sulfur at harvest, no sulfur during fermentation, no sulfur at bottling. The wines are not filtered. They are not fined. They are bottled as they are, with their natural sediment, their living yeasts, and their evolving character intact. This demands absolute cleanliness in the cellar, perfect grape health in the vineyard, and a willingness to accept that each bottle will be slightly different from the next. Andi's process is, in his own words, "not very spectacular" — but it is precisely this lack of spectacle that produces the spectacular results: wines that are fresh, juicy, cloudily alive, and deeply expressive of the Keuper soils of Iphofen.

The amphora and qvevri experiments are a recent addition, inspired by Andi's love for the wines of the Jura and Georgia. The Amphora Red — 100% Pinot Noir, whole-bunch macerated for 9 months in Tava clay amphora — produces a wine of vivid ruby colour, flowery and spicy nose, and elegant, crunchy tannins. The Amphora White — Müller-Thurgau and Bacchus, whole-bunch macerated for 9 months in amphora — yields a wine of roses and apricots, light and balanced, with flavours that "just keep on coming." The Skin Silvaner — 40-year-old vines, 50% destemmed by hand, 50% whole bunch, 9 months in qvevri and amphora — is perhaps the most radical cuvée: a skin-contact Silvaner that remains fresh and juicy despite its long maceration, proving that the variety's thick skins and Keuper roots can produce orange wines of startling vitality. These experiments are not gimmicks; they are extensions of Andi's core philosophy — the hardest way, the most honest way, and the way that produces the most compelling wine.

To understand Andi Weigand, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a family alliance, a generational trust, and a young man's proof that the hardest way is the only way worth drinking. Andi Weigand is not an heir to a vast estate; he is the second generation of a family that began making wine in 1990, and the first generation to break with convention and receive not resistance but encouragement. The identity of the project is defined by this freedom: the freedom of a father who trusts his son, the freedom of a young winemaker to experiment with amphora and qvevri in a region of stainless steel, the freedom to be the only biodynamic estate in a village of twenty-five wineries, and the freedom to make cloudy, unfiltered, zero-sulfur wines in a country that still prizes polish over honesty.

The identity is also defined by three product lines — Der Wilde (The Wild One), Der Franke (The Franconian), and Der Held (The Hero) — each representing a different facet of Andi's philosophy. The Wild One is the experimental, the untamed, the amphora-macerated and the pét-nat. The Franconian is the rooted, the traditional, the Silvaner and the large-barrel white. The Hero is the courageous, the singular, the old-vine MTH and the collaborative Zusammen. These are not marketing categories; they are expressions of a personality that refuses to be confined to a single style. Andi is a real free spirit — young, confident, and passionate — but he is also a man who knows exactly what he wants: good wine, free from preservatives, made in line with old traditions, and full of the love and talent that only the hard way can produce.

The future of Andi Weigand is tied to the continued health of its ten hectares, the deepening of biodynamic practices, and the gradual expansion of a portfolio that already spans white, orange, red, rosé, sparkling, and cider. Andi is eager to go further — to experiment with longer macerations, to explore forgotten varieties, and to make wines biodynamically with the full commitment that the philosophy demands. The old vines will continue to be the estate's greatest asset, the Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau that produce wines of startling depth. The amphora experiments will continue to push the boundaries of what Franken can be. The 77&friends festival will continue to build community among the young winemakers of the region. And the father's quiet support will continue to provide the foundation on which the son's wildness can flourish.

In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and corporate consolidation — Andi Weigand stands as a compelling alternative, not because it rejects modernity but because it has embraced a deeper modernity: one that values an 80-year-old basket press over a pneumatic crusher, 1250L large oak barrels over stainless steel tanks, clay amphora and qvevri over enamel vats, hand-picked grape by grape over machine harvesting, indigenous yeasts over inoculation, zero sulfur over standardised stability, no filtration over cosmetic clarity, no fining over chemical correction, old vines at 10,000 vines per hectare over high-yielding clones, the father's trust over the consultant's fee, and the specific voice of the Iphöfer Kronsberg over the standardised replication of a global style. Andi Weigand is not merely making wine; he is proving that a young man can transform his father's winery into a modern business without losing its soul, that a village of twenty-five wineries can make room for one biodynamic radical, that a wine with zero sulfur can possess the most profound generosity, and that the simplest philosophy — if you want to achieve something, you need to do it the hard way — is often the most profound. From the first natural vintage in 2018 to the 2024 release in the 1600s cellar: all united in one bottle, one basket press, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, organic, zero-sulfur, hand-made, passionately honest wine from the Keuper heart of Franken.