The Volcano on the Mosel: Jas Swan & Katla Wines
On the slopes of the Mosel valley, Jas Swan makes natural wines named for Icelandic mythology — sold an Edinburgh flat to fund the first vintage of 2,500 litres, and now vinifies with a manual wooden press, neutral vessels and nothing at all added: indigenous yeasts, zero sulphur, whole clusters and semi-carbonic macerations. There are triangular labels with drag queens, pét-nats that honour them, barrels aged outdoors, and herbs foraged from the forest thrown into fermentation. «I make wines that I like to drink, but that don't essentially go along with the traditional style of the area where I am based.»
Katla Wines is the one-person project of Jas Swan, a winemaker with a taste for volcanoes and rulebooks to break. The first vintage, in 2019, amounted to 2,500 litres — funded, famously, by selling a flat in Edinburgh — and the wines have been made since in the cellar at Staffelter Hof on the Mosel, one of Germany's oldest estates. From the start the premise was refusal: «I prefer to make my own traditions, instead of following others.»
The project operates as a micro-négociant with an unusually loyal network. Swan purchases organically farmed grapes from trusted friends across German wine regions — Christine Pieroth of Piri Naturel in the Nahe, Andi Mann and Nicklas Rückrich in Rheinhessen, Lukas Kraus in the Pfalz — while farming 0.4 hectares of own vines on the steep slopes of the Mosel valley, with the ambition of managing those plots entirely and harvesting everything by hand. The name comes from Katla, the Icelandic volcano: a project built to erupt, quietly, on its own terms.
The Place — One Slope, Four Regions
Half a hectare of own vines climbs the Mosel valley slopes near the Staffelter Hof cellar — steep, slate-scored, worked by hand — while the négociant fruit arrives from across western Germany. The growers are friends first, and the farming is organic throughout; sustainability, Swan insists, starts in the soil.
The Mosel — Own Vines
0.4 hectares on Mosel valley slopes, with the aim of managing the plots throughout the year and harvesting everything by hand — the home terroir of a self-described low-intervention cellar.
Nahe & Rheinhessen — The Friends
Christine Pieroth (Piri Naturel) in the Nahe; Andi Mann and Nicklas Rückrich in Rheinhessen — organic growers whose grapes become Soley, Móa, Alison and more. Kerner, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Riesling travel from their slopes.
Pfalz — Lukas Kraus
Lukas Kraus in the Pfalz completes the network, and the multi-regional blends — Regent with Riesling, Pinot Gris with Gamay logic — are bottled as Deutscher Wein, deliberately outside the appellation system.
Hybrids & the Future
Swan is an outspoken advocate of PIWI — fungus-resistant hybrid grapes like Regent and Sauvignac — arguing that the future of viticulture in a warming, spraying-pressured Europe runs through resistant varieties.
Cellar — Manual Everything, Added Nothing
The cellar is a manifesto of subtraction. A manual wooden press; neutral vessels only — stainless steel and old barrels; grapes de-stemmed by hand; indigenous yeasts; no additions, no corrections, zero sulphur. Low intervention in the cellar, high attention in the vineyard: every decision is made before the ferment, where nothing can be taken back.
Around that discipline, experimentation runs wild. Foraged herbs and flowers — Douglas fir, lilac, globe thistles, spruce tips, hops, elderflower — go into fermentation tanks; barrels are left outdoors, exposed to the elements for much of the year — Soley spent 70% of its élevage outside, emerging oxidative, gingery, alive with meadow flowers. «Cash-flow wines» fund the experiments: light, drinkable, revolutionary.
And the project refuses to stay in its lane. Swan speaks at the Wine vs. Climate Change Summit, champions trans rights, and tours with «Back of the Van», a mobile salon — wine poured from the back of a van, because access, like tradition, is something you make yourself.
The Wines — Named for the North
A constellation of small cuvées, each with a mythic name and a triangle on the label: amber Kerner aged outdoors, witchy chillable reds, a Merlot called «mother», pét-nats for the queens. All zero-addition, all unmistakably Katla.
Soley
The Kerner — aged outdoors among the elements100% Kerner from Piri Naturel in the Nahe: hand de-stemmed, two weeks of maceration, then aged in old barrels placed outside for 70% of the year. Rich and amber — ginger, meadow flowers, smoky orange — with a little residual sugar it never finished. Oxidation as a gift.
Heks
The witch — a chillable red of Pinot Blanc & RegentHeks means «witch» in Norwegian: Pinot Blanc direct-pressed, Regent semi-carbonic for five days. Elegant, chillable, witchy — redcurrants, cherry cola, spiced lavender. Swan's answer to «Cuvée rot, rötlich.»
Móa & Sigyn
The dark ones — whole-bunch Merlot, and Regent with RieslingMóa — call her «mother» — is 100% whole-bunch Merlot from Andi Mann's vineyard in Eckelsheim, plummy and soft with sage; Sigyn, named for Loki's wife, is 75% Regent and 25% Riesling, macerated semi-carbonically and left gently sparkling with three grams of sugar. Dark yet refreshing: grown-up forest vibes.
Mosó
The collaboration — Riesling skin contact with Ólafur Arnalds100% Riesling on skins, made with Grammy-nominated Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds: oxidative, savoury brioche, cedar, honey and calendula — a playful, soothing amber wine that challenges every Mosel convention, at 12%.
Blóma & the Drag-Nats
The herbs and the queens — Merlot infused with the forest, pét-nats for the drag lineBlóma infuses Merlot with foraged globe thistles, spruce tips, Douglas fir, hops and elderflower — «not a vermouth: no spirit, no sugar added»; Hunty is a punky original pét-nat; and the Drag-Nat line — Kiki, Cucu, Queendom — sparkles in honour of drag queens, Queendom a dark rosé of Regent, Pinot Gris and Riesling, crunchy with brambles and lingonberries.
Legacy — Own Traditions
Katla's first legacy is proof of scale. 2,500 litres sold out of a flat in Edinburgh became a label poured across Europe's natural-wine bars — without a single addition, without a sulphur molecule, without a marketing budget. The growth has stayed deliberately slow: one press, neutral vessels, friends' grapes, and 0.4 hectares of home slopes farmed by hand.
The second legacy is the iconography. Triangular labels, drag queens, Icelandic volcanoes, Norwegian witches, a mobile salon called Back of the Van — Katla built a visual and cultural language as distinctive as its wines, and tied it to causes: trans rights, climate summits, PIWI advocacy. «I make wines that I like to drink, but that don't essentially go along with the traditional style of the area where I am based» reads as modesty; in German wine law, it is a small revolution.
And the legacy is a doorway held open. Every Deutscher Wein that blends Regent with Riesling, every barrel left out in the rain, every Drag-Nat disgorged by hand, insists that German wine can be something its own rules never imagined. From the foot of an Icelandic volcano to the slate of the Mosel: the eruption continues, vintage by vintage.