Peter and Michael Kriechel
Germany
Peter and Michael's Wines
- Germany
- 1Â wine
- 1Â style
One of the most celebrated family wineries of the Ahr Valley
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In 2021 the Ahr Valley was devastated by floods that left local winemakers on their knees and wiped out 10% of the region's vineyards. With your help, Naked raised over £50,000 to help rebuild the lives of those affected. That’s when we met Peter & Michael Kriechel.
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The Kriechel family is one of the most celebrated names in the Ahr Valley. Their winemaking journey began in 1952, when Peter Kriechel Sr planted his first vines among the steep hillside plots that define this incredible wine region. Starting out with a single 1.5 hectare field, they now own and manage almost 27 hectares of grapevines around the region, all hand-picked and diligently maintained for quality over quantity.
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Specialists in Spatburgunder (that’s what the Germans call Pinot Noir), Peter & Michael’s Ahr Valley wines are delicious enough to rival anything from Burgundy. They abide by a staunch regional philosophy in their winemaking - even the oak trees for their wine barrels come from their own forest on the Ahr to provide the optimal terroir for their wines.
Vineyard Location
Peter and Michael Kriechel's Story
The Kriechel family has been growing wine in the Ahr Valley since at least 1555. Most likely for a longer time. At least our genealogical research goes this far.
In 1952, our grandfather Peter left the cooperative with his vineyards in order to bottle and sell his own wine from now on. This was so successful that our Uncle Hermann (master winemaker) and our father Ernst (wine-growing technician) took over and enlarged the winery in 1969. This was only possible by moving from our headquarters in Marienthal to Ahrweiler and building a new one.
Since 2003 we are now in the third generation of management.
Michael became a winemaker through classic winemaking training. Raised in his parents' business from childhood, from 1995 onwards he completed 3 years of apprenticeship in a state winery, then went on to school to become a state-certified economist.
Peter is the classic career changer. Growing up with wine growing in the family, he was first drawn to the financial sector in order to get back to his roots after his eldest brother became ill. He has been running the winery with his brother Michael since 2012
Even as children, we went to the vineyard (mostly to play). The winery was also a big adventure playground. Above all, the grape harvest was always the best time to get involved.
When we realised in our youth that our soccer talent wouldn't be enough to become a professional soccer player ;-) it wasn't difficult for us to continue on the path of our ancestors and concentrate on viticulture. We basically grew up with Ahr Spätburgunder in our blood.
Michael spends what feels like the entire day in all seasons with the team outside in the vineyard. Afterwards he devotes himself to his family and prefers to spend the evening with them, chilly and calmly in nature, in his garden or on his terrace.
Peter holds the position in the winery and takes care of the management of the winery. Afterwards he looks forward to spending time with his family and his animals.
You learn something new every year and try to become better and more precise over and over again. This is how you grow from year to year and every vintage is inspiring
Our most memorable moment in wine is of course the flood in 2021 in which we lost almost everything except our will and lives.
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40,000 liters of barrel wine
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20,000 bottles
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Our wine cellar with all the technology
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Our restaurant
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Our apartment house
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Damage of 4 million euros
Nevertheless, we are very grateful that our entire family and our team remained unharmed and that we can rebuild. Because everything also offers an opportunity to do better.
After the flood, we were particularly impressed by how the large winegrowing community stood together both nationally and internationally and gave us hope in the Ahr Valley, in the vineyards, in the cellar, when clearing mud, with machines, and much more. This was the only way we were able to process our grapes and produce wine in 2021.
After the terrible flood in 2021 in the Ahr Valley, we founded the crowdfunding #flutwein and thus gave the entire valley new hope for a new future. Within 6 weeks it became the largest crowdfunding to date in German-speaking countries.
Who are the people around us that make our wine a reality? First of all, our families should be mentioned. Without our wives Stefanie and Ann-Christin, who support us, none of this would be possible.
Then our children who give us the vision for everything we do.
Our father, who looks after us as the big boss or patron and makes sure we don't do anything wrong. ;-) He gives us a free hand in all decisions.
Our cellar master Michael Hewel who is irreplaceable for us. He was trained by our father in the 90s. Of course, our entire team, which consists of 20 people all year round, is like a family to us.
Outside of winemaking, of course, we both share a love of drinking and collecting wine, as well as good food. :-D
We both enjoy being in company and sometimes spend the evening with our friends in the pub. Both of us are passionate football fans and supporters of 1. FC Köln and attend international games as often as possible with our season tickets. Peter sang and played football passionately until the flood and is looking forward to taking up his hobbies again after the reconstruction.
We chose to work with Naked Wines after we had a few conversations with Ray and very quickly fell in love with the idea and concept.
We believe that Pinot Noir is the top of wine quality and too few people in the UK know this quality of the Ahr Valley.
The marketing alone from Naked Wines helps us to cope with the reconstruction, because our entire marketing infrastructure was also destroyed with the flood.
In addition, everyone is always invited to visit us and get to know the beauty of our homeland
Our message to Angels is to never give up and always see the positive in your life!
And of course drink plenty of Ahrwein.
