The Van Volxem winery is located in Wiltingen, the largest and most important wine-growing community on the Saar. The owner of the winery is Roman Niewodniczanski, known as "Niewo" – the youngest scion of the Bitburger dynasty and a passionate wine lover. While his two brothers lead the Bitburger brewery group as managing directors, Roman developed a love for wine early on. It was a bottle of 1971 Egon Müller Scharzhofberger Auslese Goldkapsel, enjoyed with his grandfather Theobald Simon – founder of the Bitburger brewery – that so impressed him that he decided to own a winery himself. This burgeoning love of wine led him to undertake numerous wine journeys during his studies in economic geography and business administration. He sampled wines from all over the world, visiting the best châteaux in Bordeaux and the finest domains in Burgundy to understand what exactly makes a great wine. Anyone who has ever been in the current gentlemen's room of the historic winery in the center of Wiltingen will understand that Roman took his "liquid education" very seriously. A wooden border runs continuously through the large room at eye level. On it, bottle after bottle of the world's most famous wineries from vintages dating back to the 20th century are lined up: Romanée-Conti, Henri Jayer, Leroy, Petrus, Mouton Rothschild, Haut-Brion, and of course the finest delicacies from Mosel-Saar-Ruwer by Egon Müller and Joh. Jos. Prüm – in short: the crème de la crème of the wine world, which makes every wine lover's pulse race, is lined up here as the vinophile memory of Roman Niewodniczanski. The man has taste! He knows a story to tell about every bottle, because each bottle has helped him understand a little more about what a truly great wine tastes like. Because only those who know what a great wine tastes like know their goal when they intend to produce a truly great wine themselves.



"The rise to one of Germany's best wineries"

With the aim of founding a world-renowned winery, he travelled the world in search of a vineyard that met his standards. At that time, it was fashionable to buy a chic vineyard overseas or in Tuscany, but Roman Niewodniczanski had already dealt with the success strategies of the Mosel region in comparison to other wine-growing regions in his diploma thesis. And so he came to the conclusion that here on the Saar, only about 45 minutes from his home in Bitburg, perfect conditions prevail in the long term to produce world-class wines, even with advancing climate change. At that time, however, German viticulture in general and viticulture on the Saar in particular were at rock bottom. Apart from a few leading companies, such as Egon Müller, the prices were...
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The prices paid for Saar wines were astronomical, even in the cellar. This presented the visionary investor Roman Niewodniczanski with the ideal opportunity to acquire the Van Volxem winery, which at that time operated under the name Jordan & Jordan, in 2000. From the outset, he had a clear vision: to return the estate to the top of the world, where Saar wines had already been over 100 years ago! Around the turn of the century, the wines of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer were the most famous and expensive wines in the world! Old wine lists from luxury hotels and restaurants prove that our Saar wines cost many times more than the now world-famous and exorbitantly expensive Bordeaux and Burgundy wines. The winery had already owned large estates in many of these then world-famous vineyards, such as Scharzhofberger or Wiltinger Gottesfuß, since the early 18th century. It was a founding member of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter (VDP) and at that time possessed enormous potential waiting to be unleashed. Roman's acquisition marked the beginning of the spectacular comeback of Van Volxem wines. Today, some 20 years later, it can rightly be said that the wines are undoubtedly among the best white wines in the country. As early as 2002, Niewodniczanski's commitment bore fruit, as the Gault & Millau wine guide awarded the winery "Discovery of the Year". Numerous further awards followed in the next few years. Vinum Winemaker of the Year 2018, 4 red grapes in Gault & Millau, 5 Falstaff stars – the leading wine guides agree: Van Volxem embodies world-class! The provisional highlight was the award of the Van Volxem Scharzhofberger P. Großen Gewächs 2017 in Gault & Millau as the best dry white wine in Germany – an absolute premiere for the Saar, as our dry wines had never received such appreciation before! But it was a long and arduous journey to get here...



"That's why the winery is called Van Volxem"

The winery itself dates back to a Roman villa complex, the remains of which can still be seen on the winery grounds today. On this foundation, the Luxembourg Jesuit order built the monastery winery in 1743, in the heart of Wiltingen's historic center, directly opposite the Wiltingen "Saar Cathedral". It was also monks who, from the 11th century onwards, rediscovered the vineyards of the winery, which had already been established by the Romans in the 3rd century in the best slate slopes of the Saar. After the Saar region was conquered by Napoleon Bonaparte, church properties were expropriated and auctioned off to the highest bidder as part of the so-called secularization. This is how the winery came into the possession of Gustav van Volxem, a brewer from Brussels. He recognized the enormous potential of the winery's own vineyards, which were classified in the Prussian vineyard classification of 1865 as vineyards of the highest quality, for which consequently the most taxes had to be paid. The Belgian brewer used these optimal conditions and developed the winery into one of the most renowned estates of the then German Empire. Around the turn of the century, the winery reached its zenith, as its wines enjoyed great international renown and were traded at top prices, many times higher than those of today's prestigious Bordeaux or Champagne. The winery was owned by the Van Volxem family for four generations, before the Munich entrepreneur Peter Jordan took over the winery in 1993 and gave it the name "Jordan & Jordan". This proved to be moderately successful, as the wines could not reach the level of the former Van Volxem wines, and so the former flagship winery was gradually run down. At the end of the 1990s, the winery was on the verge of bankruptcy. This was the chance for the young Roman Niewodniczanski to take over the dilapidated winery and breathe new life into it. First, he lovingly restored the beautiful manor house and gave the winery its old name back: VAN VOLXEM. After further investments in cellars, machinery and vineyards, the quality of the Van Volxem wines could be continuously improved and the efforts were soon to be rewarded. After being reinstated into the VDP in 2007, the winery