Hans Ulrich Kesselring

Hans Ulrich Kesselring , also Hans Ueli Kesselring , (* 1946 at Schloss Bachtobel ; † September 6, 2008 ibid) was a Swiss winemaker in Thurgau .

Live and act

Bachtobel Castle, Hans Ulrich Kesselring's place of birth, residence and death

As a family member, Hans Ulrich Kesselring belonged to the 7th generation of the Kesselring family, which can be traced back to the 15th century. He and his sister Dorothee grew up on the Bachtobel winery. At the age of 20 he graduated from high school and intended to study chemistry at the ETH Zurich . But the death of his father Hans Kesselring forced him to attend the engineering school in Wädenswil , specializing in viticulture . He then completed two internships with his future mentor and lifelong friend Jules Chauvet (1907–1989) in Beaujolais and California . When he returned to his parents' winery, he took over from his mother, who had managed it for him in his absence.

Kesselring was and is considered a lateral thinker. With his unconventional methods, he quickly sat down between the chairs. So he consistently relied on wood aging and the wines for his Pinot Noir No. 3 are pressed on the restored, mighty tree press from the 16th century. In the last years of his work - also because of the recently very hot summers - Kesselring moved away from too much abundance. He was chairman of the Mémoire des Vins Suisses , an interest group of Swiss viticulture culture, for a long time. His collaboration with Chauvet led to intensive technical dialogues that were also heard in the professional world. His efforts to produce his Pinot Noir , which makes up four fifths of his vineyard area, are regarded as his special legacy . He also expressed his desire to reduce everything to the bare essentials with the design of his bottle labels, which only contained the consecutive number of his creations and the name of his winery on the front. Another important variety for him was Riesling-Silvaner . The great Johnson classifies his wines with 2–3 stars, ie with “at least good”, but also “consistently high quality”.

A large part of his reputation is based on his ability "to hardly dare to think about the others in his sphere of activity", such as his attempt to plant small plots with new vines at different, controlled times and the successes in growth, resilience, yield and quality to investigate biodynamically.

Since his death, his nephew Johannes Meier has been in charge of the production at the winery, which will be producing Cuvée No. 4 introduced. The pioneering achievements in the area of ​​Pinot Noir not only led to an improvement in quality in our own company, but also the neighboring winemakers, in particular Michael Broger , Weingut Burkhart and Martin Wolfer belong to "the new top league on the Ottenberg", Weinfelden's local mountain . According to Thomas Vaterlaus, this terroir would meanwhile have the prerequisites for a Grand Cru based on the Burgundy model and not as permitted by the lax Swiss wine laws.

Awards

• 2000: Vinea, Siders: 1st place, for “98 Pinot Noir No. 3 - The Other”
• 2003: Vinea, Sierre: Gold medal for "Auslese Bachtobel 2002"

literature

• Martin Kilchmann: Man and winemaker between the chairs. In: Mémoires des vins suisses , edition 2009/2010, p. 4f.
• Jürg Gafner: On the death of Hans Ulrich Kesselring. In: Swiss Journal for Fruit and Viticulture , No. 21, 2008, p. 25.
• Hans-Ulrich Kesselring. Perfectionist is no more. In: Vinum , edition 10/2008, page 14.
• Castle stories In: Vinum , edition 4/2003, page 20
• Tom Stevenson: De meest complete wijnencyclopedie. Lannoo Uitgeverij, 2006, ISBN 978-9-077-44511-2 .
• Jules Chauvet: Le vin en question: entretien avec Hans Ulrich Kesselring. Ed. Jean Paul Rocher, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-91136108-3 .
  • Il vino questione: conversazione sul vino del futuro con Hans Ulrich Kesselring / Jules Chauvet. Translation into Italian: Ivo Bonacorsi. J.-P. Rocher, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-911361-48-2 .
• Walter Kümin: Swiss wine guide. The best winemakers and their wines. AT Verlag, 1992, ISBN 978-3-855-02437-7 . Pp. 43 and 45f.
• Kathrin Zellweger: Obituary for Hans Ulrich Kesselring. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 84, 2009, pp. 218–220. ( e-periodica.ch )

Web links

• Lilli Binzegger: Hans Ulrich Kesselring's Manoir. In: NZZ Folio . March 1997 (detailed quote from Kesselring)
• Christian Seiler: The Kesselring. In: The magazine . February 12, 2013
• Paul Imhof: A townspeople inherited the manor. In: Tages-Anzeiger . September 25, 2010
• Rudolf Trefzer: Hans Ulrich Kesselring: Top winemaker from Most India. In: Handelszeitung . September 24, 2003
• HU Kesselring died. In: St. Galler Tagblatt . September 10, 2008, accessed December 2, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Thomas Vaterlaus: Ottenberg im Thurgau: The Grand Cru In: Vinum , edition 1–2 / 2015
2. ↑ Jamie Goode, Sam Harrop: Authentic wine: toward natural and sustainable winemaking. University of California Press 2011, ISBN 978-0-520-26563-9 , pp. 142-145.
3. ↑ The Great Johnson , 19th ed., P. 436.
4. ↑ Sandro Shisla: Lived in contrasts. In memory of the Weinfeld winemaker Johann Ulrich Kesselring , St. Galler Tagblatt , September 16, 2008, p. 50
5. ↑ Switzerland on Sunday , November 16, 2014, p. 46.
6. ^ Website Mémoire des Vins Suisses .
7. ^ Till Schröder: Lake in a wine glass.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. From the author's website, accessed December 2, 2014.  
8. ↑ Thurgau wines with high awards. in: Thurgauer Bauer , No. 45 (2003), on the website of the Thurgau Agriculture Association, accessed on December 2, 2014.