In 2012, Californian wine importer Selection Massale collaborated with a few European winemakers to launch a line of wines called La Boutanche. They sought to create a series of wines that adhere to natural wine philosophy while also being affordable liter bottles with screw caps. Roughly translated, La Boutanche means ‘pure,’ ‘unadulterated,’ ‘glou glou,’ and ‘a good buzz’ wine, which is exactly what its makers were aiming for: wine meant to be guzzled in a field or on a beach with friends and loud music. Today, there are quite a few Boutanche labels (collect them all!), made by individual winemakers who each have their own specific animal on their labels - the fish (Frantz Saumon), the pig (Olivier Minot), the French bulldog (Quentin Bourse), the gorilla (Martin Texier), and our favorite, the grasshopper, Andi Knauss. 

From a fourth generation winemaking family, Andi Knauss took over Weingut Knauss from his father in 2004 and has never looked back. Weingut Knauss is located in the hilly area of Strümpfelbach, which is one of five districts within the town of Weinstadt. Weinstadt, or ‘Wine City,’ not surprisingly, is best known for its vineyards and wine production. Andi chooses grapes from different plots in this region of Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany. Some of his grapes also come from a few surrounding villages in the hills around the river Rems. Ancient limestone can be found layered beneath the surface of the rolling hills of vines in this idyllic area. 

This year we secured a small amount of three different ‘grasshopper’ Boutanche liters! The red is made from the grape Trollinger, which Andi compares to a Jura Poulsard. La Boutanche Trollinger is a light ruby red color, with soaring aromas of cherry and berries, a grippy mouthfeel and a ton of refreshing acidity. Trollinger, also known as Schiava Grossa, is the most common type of the Schiava grape (of which there are many varieties) and originated in the Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy but is now mostly prevalent is Württemberg, Germany. La Boutanche Trollinger Rosé is young-vine Trollinger directly pressed into stainless steel tanks resulting in a salmon-pink wine with an edgy, spicy backbones and a wave of electric acidity. La Boutanche Riesling is zippy, dry, fresh, and lemony with an edgy acidity and prevalent citrus on the finish. Enjoy all three of Andi’s La Boutanche Liters, or choose your favorite one, but most importantly, “Choose wisely, grasshopper.”

Some fun facts for the wine nerds out there: Andi Knauss and his team use all organic practices in their 18 hectares of vineyards; in the cellar they employ all natural fermentation and use only minimal sulfur when necessary. 65% of their wine production is red wine (rotwein) and 35% is white wine (weisswein). Andi’s vines are up to 60-years-old, with an average age of 25-years-old, the vine density is roughly 8,000 vines per hectare, and after harvest, Weingut Knauss produces roughly 95,000 liters of wine. Weingut Knauss produces a considerable amount of wine, and remains committed to making all natural wine, including experimenting with small, limited production wines like La Boutanche series.