20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

Christian and Alexandra Ehrlich – from three
vine rows to a four-hectare-garagiste
WEINMANUFAKTUR 3 ZEILEN | RÖDELSEE, FRANKEN
IMPROVISATION ARTIST WITH
A MIND OF HIS OWN WORD RAINER SCHÄFER
Photos: Lucie Greiner Medienagenten, Weinmanufaktur 3 Zeilen
Christian Ehrlich called his
Riesling from the 2018 vintage
‘Dachschaden’ (i.e. literally roof
damage but also colloquial for
stupidity) – and this may well serve as a
symbol for the history of Weinmanufaktur
3 Zeilen in Rödelsee. This history is
characterised by numerous tiny steps in the
right direction, numerous gut decisions but
also setbacks. Ehrlich and his wife
Alexandra run their estate on the side and
their most recent impulse towards
self-sufficiency was the purchase of a
100-year-old winery two years ago. This
building is being renovated bit by bit and
every bottle of the ‘Dachschaden’ Riesling
sold is supposed to finance one square metre
of a new roof. ‘By now we are masters of
improvisation,’ the 38-year-old says, who
still works full-time for a manufacturer of
cellar machinery in Kitzingen. Ehrlich came
to wine via a circuitous path. Initially, he
wanted to train as an electrician but soon
realised that ‘laying cables wasn’t his world.’
He then got a diploma in oenological
engineering and worked for the Manincor
estate and Kellerei Terlan in Alto Adige,
Italy, as well as for the organic estate of
Gerhard Roth in Franken. ‘This really
shaped me,’ he says. It was in 2006 that
Ehrlich started making his own wine from
three rows of Silvaner (i.e. the three Zeilen
of the estate’s name). He whitewashed his
grandmother’s laundry room and put his
first barrels there. Since no bank was willing
to extend a loan, the savings paid into a
mutual building society account served as
his modest capital. ‘I had no harvest buckets,
no secateurs,’ he remembers. Later on, he
started sharing a cellar with another
winemaker in Iphofen, ‘but it always was
just too cramped.’ Currently the Ehrlichs
have four hectares of vines, barrels, tanks
and machinery spread across four locations
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