Micheal Voelker and Melanie Drese spent many years working in other fields, traveling the world and living in Heidelberg, Regensburg, London, and New York. In 2013 they returned to begin taking over Michael’s father’s winery in Kitzingen in Bavarian Germany. Michael’s father is a long time winemaker, who in fact sits on the quality control board for the appellation, but has been very supportive of Michael’s desire to make wine without additives. They began to make natural wines under the 2naturkinder label as a side project for the winery, and since then have decided to fully expand the project to take over more of the winery’s production. Michael has a particular interest in bats in the vineyard, and a few of the labels are inspired by them. He obtains bat guano from a local nature conservancy, which he uses as fertilizer and is sponsoring a research project on the role of bats in the vineyard.

The Vater & Sohn portfolio was an offshoot project between Michael and his father, Bernhard Voelker. The line was designed as a meeting of minds that reflected the wine sensibility of 2 generations.  Bernhard Voelker had made wine for most of his life here in Kitzingen, the heart of Franconian winemaking country, under appellation standards (serving on the local Appellation Certification Board) and as such the wines wouldn’t necessarily be categorized as ‘natural.’  Michael always knew he wanted to make low intervention wine but it took time to bring his father around to his vision.  As of 2020, Michael and Melanie had taken over the reigns at Weingut Voelker (Eveline and Bernhard having decided to take their well-earned retirement).  The whole estate now is under the 2Naturkinder name though this Vater & Sohn line of bottles still reflects a collaborative farming and viticultural effort between Bernhard and Michael.

This is a charming and aromatic wine: stone fruit, orange zest, dried papaya with notes of white tea. This wine has the softest touch of skin contact, adding a bit of texture to the mouthfeel.