Why does the wine adviser come to your home? 350 years of Pieroth
In 1675 a family on the Nahe began making wine. In 1953 two brothers invented the living-room wine tasting, because nobody had a car. Today Pieroth delivers 480,000 bottles a year in Switzerland and 127 wines found nowhere else. Why the model still works today, and what it means for you.
Burg Layen, 1675
Burg Layen is a village on the Nahe, a tributary of the Rhine near Bingen. Steep sites, slate and quartzite in the soil, Riesling on the slopes. There, the Pieroth family began farming and winegrowing in 1675. Vineyards are documented in the family's possession from 1704, and in the 1870s the family acquired further sites and focused on wine.
The estate still exists today. It farms around 25 hectares in Burg Layen, and two of its wines are in our range: the Grosses Gewächs from the Burg Layer Hölle site, a dry Riesling, CHF 34.90, and the Burg Layer Schlosskapelle Riesling, sweet and fruity, CHF 25.90.
1926: the wine goes into the bottle
Well into the 20th century, wine was sold in barrel to merchants, who bottled it themselves. Whoever bought the bottle didn't know what the merchant had done with it. In 1926, Pieroth began bottling its wine itself and delivering it directly to customers. That sounds obvious today. At the time, it was a break with the trade.
1953: the living-room wine tasting
The real invention came a generation later. After the war, few people had a car, and nobody drove out to the Nahe to taste wine. The brothers Elmar and Kuno Pieroth turned the idea around: if customers won't come to the wine, the wine comes to the customers. A wine adviser brings a selection along, you taste together at the kitchen table, with no obligation to buy, and order what you like.
Pieroth was thereby the first German winery to sell its wine through direct sales. The model was so successful that the first foreign branch opened in 1960, in the United Kingdom. Today Pieroth operates in Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, Italy and Switzerland.
Pieroth in Switzerland
Pieroth SA is based in Cham, in the canton of Zug. 69 employees, 480,000 bottles a year, 127 wines available nowhere else in Switzerland. The principle from 1953 still holds unchanged: the wine adviser comes to your home, the tasting is free and comes with no obligation.
This online shop is the complement to that. Anyone who already knows their wine can reorder here. Anyone still looking can get advice.
The quality guarantee
Every wine in the range has been tasted by the house's wine experts before it was added to the programme. If a customer finds a fault, they report it to customer service and receive a replacement. That has been stated in the terms and conditions for decades, and it's the reason Pieroth customers often stay loyal across generations.
What this means for you
Three things. First: wines you won't find in retail, because they are bottled exclusively for Pieroth. Second: advice that comes to you, if that's what you want. Third: 350 years of experience with what's in the bottle.
And a wine that shows an old estate doesn't stand still: the Weingut Pieroth Orange Wine, CHF 24.90, a white wine fermented on its skins like a red. Dry, powerful, unusual.
