September is a great month to drink wine.
It's that golden hour that lasts all month. Still warm enough to eat outside, but you need a jumper around your shoulders by eight. Low, honeyed light, the last tomatoes and herbs that actually taste of something are still hanging on, but you're craving hearty meals, roasted vegetables, mushrooms, soups, stews, things from the oven. You've lit a candle for the first time since May but you've left the back door wide open.
This box lives right in that space. Four places, four families, all farming with a lot of care and not much shouting about it. From the steep slate and chalk of the Rheingau where the Rhine catches that late light, to a hidden volcanic pocket in the far west of Rheinhessen they call Rheinhessische Schweiz, porphyry rock, heath, old quarries and dry stone walls, down to sandy Burgenland over the Neusiedl lake with its wide skies and Pannonian warmth, and finally the very southern tip of the Pfalz in Schweigen where you can see Alsace from the vines and the soil is pure limestone.
Nothing heavy, nothing too light. Just bright, honest, low-intervention wines that taste exactly like now. Late lunches that turn into suppers, cooking with the music playing, Sundays when the light goes early. The last of the summer wine.
BREUER SAUVAGE RIESLING, RHEINGAU
- Producer: Georg Breuer
- Vintage: 2024
- Alcohol: 12%
- Drink: 12*
- Price: €30
- Region: Rheingau
- Grapes: Riesling
- Drink at: Nightmarket, Mr fox
This is Theresa Breuer’s off-duty bottle, and it’s brilliant.
The Breuers have been in Rüdesheim since 1880. A serious estate formed of steep slate with Grand Cru vineyards, one of the Rheingau’s greats. In 2019, Theresa, who took over from her father Bernhard at a young age has quietly turned the estate into one of Germany’s most exciting, she teamed up with two friends who also happen to have 300 years of Rheingau winemaking experience between them. The brief was simple, forget the heirloom parcel chat and make the wine accessible, Riesling you can actually to drink on a Tuesday and not needing twenty years in the cupboard.
It’s 100% estate Riesling, hand-picked from around Rüdesheim and Rauenthal where the soils are chalk, loess and quartzite, not only the classic slate. That matters because it makes it salty and open rather than stern. Whole-bunch pressed, spontaneous ferment with indigenous yeasts, then aged in old 1200L Stück and stainless steel. No fining, minimal sulphur, nothing added for effect.
'Sauvage', in the glass is electric and properly moreish, white peach, green apple, lime zest, a little white flower, then that chalky, saline, almost smoky snap on the finish that makes you salivate. Dry, racy, crunchy acidity and 12.5% so you can have a second glass without thinking about it.
Serve it with a good chill but not ice cold, big glass. It’s oysters and lemon if you’re feeling fancy, but it’s just as good with fish and chips, lemony courgettes, soft goat cheese, late summer in a bottle. Drink it now while there is still light.
PITTI, PITTNAUER, BURGENLAND
- Producer: Pittnauer
- Vintage: 2023
- Alcohol: 13%
- Drink: 12*
- Price: €24
- Region: Burgenland
- Grapes: Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch
- Drink at: MacCurtain St Wine Cellar, Fallon and Byrne, Adega
This is the Pittnauers’ Friday night wine, and it’s why everyone loves them.
We’re in Gols in Burgenland, just over the Neusiedl lake. Sandy loam and gravel, wide flat skies, Pannonian heat by day with cool nights. Roland Pittnauer went biodynamic back in 2006 when no one was doing it there, insects, cover crops, compost teas, no herbicides and now his son Lukas is driving it even further. Full Demeter, everything done by hand, everything alive.
Pitti is 80% Zweigelt, 20% Blaufränkisch, their take on the classic Austrian blend. Hand-picked, de-stemmed, fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts, then aged for a few months in big old 500L oak. No new barriques, no extraction, no make-up. Just fruit and place.
It’s exactly what you want from an early autumn red, bright, juicy, cool. In the glass it’s dark and earthy, black cherry, dried herbs, a little funky, with that loamy thing underneath that tells you it’s biodynamic. Light on its feet but with grip, tangy acidity, clean mineral finish that makes you reach straight back for the glass.
This wants a slight chill, in the fridge for 20 minutes. Serve with charcuterie, roast peppers, a big bowl of tomato pasta, grilled sausages, or just on its own while you’re deciding what to cook, absurdly drinkable.
WAGNER, GRÜNER SILVANER, RHEINHESSISCHE SCHWEIZ
- Producer: Wagner Stempel
- Vintage: 2025
- Alcohol: 12%
- Drink: 12*
- Price: €25
- Region: Rheinhessen
- Grapes: Grüner Silvaner
- Drink at: Host, Glovers Alley, barnhill Stores
This is Uli and Cora Wagner hiding in plain sight, and it’s one of my favourite finds of the year.
Siefersheim, in the far west of Rheinhessen where they call it Rheinhessische Schweiz — Rheinhessian Switzerland — because it looks nothing like the rest of Rheinhessen. No rolling wheat fields, these volcanic hills are more like the Nahe. Uli took over his family’s mixed farm in 2011, now totals eleven hectares with Cora, everything sustainably farmed, low yields, hand-harvested, cover crops, serious respect for the soil.
Their Grüner Silvaner is actually Grünes Silvaner, the old local clone that almost disappeared. It comes from these rocky, sun-trapped slopes. Pressed gently, wild ferment in stainless steel, kept on fine lees for texture. Here that porphyry rock is everything, it gives you this saline, stony backbone you can’t get anywhere else.
In the glass it’s so vivacious, green apple, Williams pear, white peach, lemon peel, then meadow herbs, fresh hay, a little smoky reduction, and that mouth-watering, mineral finish that goes on. Juicy but savoury, textured, 12% and so refreshing.
This is your while-you’re-cooking wine. Pour it with anything green and herby, grilled fish with lemon, roast chicken, courgette fritters, soft goat cheese, or a simple bowl of buttered pasta. It’s the bottle people always come back for and go, what was that? Hidden gem is an overused phrase, but this actually is one.
BECKER FAMILY, PINOT NOIR, PFALZ
- Producer: Friedrich Becker
- Vintage: 2021
- Alcohol: 13.5%
- Drink: 12*
- Price: €32
- Region: Pfalz
- Grapes: Pinot Noir
- Drink at: Daróg (Galway), Ballynahinch Castle (Connemara), No. 1 Pery Square (Limerick)
This is Fritz Becker’s quiet flex, and it’s a stunner.
At the very bottom of the Pfalz, in Schweigen, right on the Alsace border — you can see Wissembourg from the vineyard. For seven generations the Beckers have farmed here, around 30 hectares now, half of which are actually over the border in Alsace. There is limestone, extreme limestone, which is why they fell in love with Pinot Noir in the first place after a trip to Burgundy in 1968. Friedrich Senior left the local co-op in 1973 to bottle himself, Fritz Jr took over in 2005 and has since won Gault & Millau’s Best German Pinot Noir almost every year. No bragging about it, just impeccable farming.
Family Pinot is their entry but it’s jam-packed. Sustainably farmed, low yields, hand-picked, fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts, then aged in French oak barriques. It smells like autumn woods, wild strawberry, black cherry, loganberry, that Black Forest gateau thing, dry wood, tobacco leaf, a flick of cinnamon and spice.
On the palate it’s juicy and elegant, silky fine-grained tannins, bright acidity, that soft, chalky limestone length that makes you go, oh, that’s Becker. It’s got that Burgundian poise but with Pfalz sunshine, 13%, lithe, not heavy.
Perfect for Sundays. Roast chicken with all the trimmings, mushroom risotto, duck, or just when the light goes early and you want something that smells like forest floor but still has summer berries in it. Serve it just below room temp, give it a little air. Gorgeous now, as its 5 years old but can age further, if you can resist.