Jan Wongse Raumland: Excerpts From the Interview

“I never call my wines ‘experiments’,” Jan told us last month, “Yet there’s no replication of styles - I am not trying to replicate anyone’s style.” 

Jan Wonge Raumland is at once an energetic, calm and kind man, perhaps his energy tempered only by his burgeoning family; “I have four kids now,” he jokes, between two of his own and his brother-in-law, who, while traveling leaves his own two to be minded by Jan and family within the Raumland compound. That’s the way of the family, though, to give and receive generosity. 

After spending some time with Felix Keller, who he still calls his best friend, Felix’s dad Klaus-Peter told Jan that to go to Geisenheim - the top oenological academy near the Rheinhessen - would be a waste of his time. “He told me to go overseas so that I wouldn’t be stuck,” Jan says, and during his time in South Africa he ended up living near his future wife, Katja Raumland. After their relationship grew, during the time of Covid Jan moved into their villa. In talks with his future father-in-law, Jan admitted that he wanted to make red wine, having played with the idea for years while tasting with the Kellers. Jan’s own wine label was born when he was gifted three thousand square meters of Rosengarten Pinot Noir, all Burgundian clones, by the Raumlands. “It was…I should say, a very generous gift,” Jan admits, laughing. 

2023 was the first commercial release for Jan’s “WongAmat” label, and the the year that he and Thatcher were brought together. “Thatcher asked me, ‘Why don’t you make a Riesling? You’re the only German never to pour me a Riesling when I come to Germany!’ I responded, ‘Because Riesling never truly fascinated me.’ Maybe I was even a little arrogant.

“I told him: ‘You harvest the grapes, ferment them dry, leave the wine on the full lees for nine months.. and there’s your next GG. To me, that always felt too simple.’ What fascinated me was always red wine - the endless decisions: Destemmed or whole cluster? Cold maceration or direct fermentation? Punch downs or pump overs? When to press? When to start malolactic fermentation? Which wood? Which toast? How much oxygen? Red wine always felt alive to me. Complex. Challenging.

“Thatcher looked at me for a moment and simply asked: ‘How many truly great red wines do you know?’I laughed, and responded, ‘Countless.’ Then came his second question: ‘And how many truly great Rieslings?’ Suddenly, the room became quiet. Because honestly, the answer was frighteningly small. Maybe a handful of wines that had truly moved me deeply. Rieslings that were not only technically perfect, but wines with greatness, tension and soul.  Then Thatcher simply said: ‘Maybe it’s not that easy after all.’ 

“That sentence stayed with me. I told myself: If I ever make a Riesling, I will do it only once. Without compromise. Without economic reasoning. Without thinking about quantity. Only with the highest ambition I could possibly imagine for a German Riesling.”

Jan also confessed that he had held back crafting a Riesling to spare the comparisons to his mentor, KP, and his son Felix. He even pled with the family to not post about his wines, so that he would have his own opportunity to make his name. 

Of course, Spätburgunder (Pinot)  is still very much a focus. “The VdP wants to start pushing Pinot Noir,” Jan told us, “But Germany is still far away from making great Pinot Noir. We are, as a country, very technical, we lack the laissez-faire of the French winemakers.” 

Jan has continued to pave his own path. “The technical producers would give you all of the tips; I would say, ‘I don’t want to hear this,” and have learned to make my wine by feel. There’s no chaptalisation - for me, I feel that the sugar will fit to the ripeness, to the structure. And -  the first time I perform any analysis is at bottling.”

“I was told early on that I have something of a green thumb,” Jan laughs. “Many people told me, ‘You need stress in your vines to make better wines.’ Then, I look at the Raumland vines, so lush, they showed me otherwise. I think of my vineyards now like humans: humans can’t do their best if too stressed or over-fed, so I don’t stress them or over-nutrient them. I do many things that they don’t agree with; I press the grapes when they’re still sweet, I use stainless steel for Pinot at times, and I bottle in the winter so that the aromas do not get let out in the heat of the Spring or Summer.”

It’s clear that the wonderment of Jan is vast, as a man lucky to have landed in a unique blend of German cultures: the world-renowned Kellers who have crafted wines critics have called the “Montrachet of Germany”, and the Raumland family who are perhaps the most prominent Sekthaus (Sparkling wine house) of the entire country - deservingly so. Yet Jan has not stopped there, as what these cohorts have shown him is to always look outside of yourself, in life as much as in wine. “Spain is very inspiring to me now,” Jan admits, and also references Cecile Tremblay and Denis Bachelet as inspirations: “They are summer wines,” he quips.

“The cool thing about the wines of the world,” says Jan, “Is that, when blind-tasting, when the producer and the vineyard are so individual that you can identify them blind.” He admits that in the German wine world, he would have no chance in terms of production quantity, against the larger producers, so he is free to craft his own style. With such care and personal touch, Jan has increasingly kept tabs over where his wines land, and controlling the cost. “My best German distributor got eighteen bottles of each wine,” Jan says, grinning. “I sell to the secondary market myself, because I don’t want my wines ending up on a menu or in a store for a crazy price. I have maybe fifteen thousand bottles requested from my private clients; in 2025, I made about six thousand. So…”

Jan clearly possess both a vision and the patience to let it come to fruition. That said, each of his cuvées are bursting with personality, while remaining true to themselves, to the grape and the terroir. “Terroir defines my wines - they are very much grown in the vineyard. I always have a clear vision: I see the end point, where I want to go.” 

From his cellar door to ours, we’re ecstatic to be able to offer something so personalized to each of you. 

Jan’s Winemaking Notes on the New Releases:

“The Riesling was pruned to two cordons à la D’Auvenay; the berries were incredibly small (Millerandage), and the soils in Rosengarten is very red, like Pettenthal. I pressed the grapes directly to barriques, keeping the lees to give a nice little bit of reduction. I hated it at the beginning, but the power grew immensely. My whites are far away from the trendy, thin style; this Riesling is bold, masculine…but chill - not loud!” 

“Schlossberg is the hottest vineyard, very sandy, and creates a very bold style of wine.”

“Rosengarten’s soils are red, very iron-rich, and can generate a fair bit of reduction. The gravel and red soils can give off a lot of heat, too.”

“Frauenberg has both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and is one of the coolest sites. The soils are a very rocky limestone, and you can taste sharp minerals; there’s a bitterness that reminds me of Cramant Chardonnay!”

“Bürgel is like the sand of a wet stone…there’s a low level of primary aromas, but it’s beautiful on the palate.”

“Vogelsang has the only German clone of Pinot Noir in any of my vineyards. It has high acid, high tannin, and smells of honey, beeswax…it honestly reminds me of Nebbiolo.”

“2021 was very cold. 2022 was perhaps the best vintage combining ripeness and acidity. 2023 was a bit cooked - the summer was too hot, very dry. 2024 was ripe early but little sugar developed. 2025 has more sugar, but is not overripe.”

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