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La Boutanche A. Knauss

'La Boutanche' Trollinger 2018

Price: $23.95
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Tasting notes

This is one of the few organically farmed, zero-additive Trollingers available outside Germany — poured from a liter bottle and tasting of fresh cranberry, wild strawberry, and crushed rose petal with a firm mineral backbone. The acidity is unusually high for a red at 5.3 g/l, which keeps every sip snappy and the bottle emptying fast.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
Wild StrawberryCranberryRose PetalMineral
Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, Red Wine
Wine Style:, Light Body
Grapes:, Trollinger
Farming:, Organic
Vintage:, 2018
Alcohol:, 12.5%
Country:, Germany
Region:, Württemberg
Appellation:, Württemberg
Bottle Size:, 1L
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

  • Style: Dry, very light-bodied red; translucent fuchsia-ruby; cranberry, wild strawberry, rose petal; 12.5% ABV; 1L screw cap
  • Grapes & Terroir: 100% Trollinger (Schiava Grossa clone); certified organic; Gipskeuper, Schilfsandstein, and Jurassic limestone soils; Schnait and Strümpfelbach, Remstal; 300–400m elevation; vines 12–36 years old
  • Winemaking: Wild yeast fermentation; zero additives (no sulfur, no added yeast, no sugar); fermented and aged in stainless steel; 1.9 g/l residual sugar; 5.3 g/l total acidity
  • Serving: Serve at 54–58°F; no decanting needed; drink young
  • Pairing: Charcuterie, soft-rind cheese, roasted chicken, tomato-based pasta, light fish
  • Similar To: For fans of Gamay, Schiava, and light-bodied Pinot Noir who want something chillable and low-intervention

100% Trollinger from eight different vineyards spanning the villages of Schnait and Strümpfelbach in the Remstal, a subzone of Württemberg. Vines range from 12 to 36 years old and are farmed organically. The wine is fermented with wild yeast and aged entirely in stainless steel, with residual sugar sitting at 1.9 g/l and total acidity at 5.3 g/l, placing it firmly in the dry category.

Trollinger — known as Schiava in northern Italy and Vernatsch in South Tyrol — is a thin-skinned, late-ripening red grape that almost exclusively grows in Württemberg, where it accounts for nearly a third of all red plantings. It produces wines that are light in color, low in tannin, and high in acidity, best consumed young. Knauss draws Trollinger from the east-facing slopes of the Rems Valley, where soils include Gipskeuper, Schilfsandstein, and Kieselsandstein overlying Jurassic limestone.

La Boutanche is a label conceived by importer Selection Massale to offer high-quality natural wine at an accessible price point, bottled in one-liter screw-cap format. Andi Knauss produces this wine under the grasshopper label. It contains no added sulfur, yeast, sugar, or other additives — a step beyond his regular estate range, where minimal sulfur is the norm.

The wine pours a translucent fuchsia-ruby, closer in appearance to a dark rosé than a red. It is best served cool, around 54–58°F, and drinks well without any decanting.

Serve cool alongside charcuterie, soft-rind cheeses, or simple pasta with tomato sauce. The high acidity and near-zero tannin make it flexible enough to pair with roasted poultry or lighter fish dishes. Think of it the way Swabians do: the house pour at the table, not a pairing project.

Important information

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.


Important Compliance Requirements

FedEx and other carriers we might occasionally use can only deliver wine to customers who are 21 years or older. Someone must be at the address to receive the package, carriers don't just drop a package and leave. They must ensure the person receiving the wine is 21 or older.


Re-shipping a Package

If a package is returned to us after three failed delivery attempts, we can only re-ship the wine upon payment of a re-shipping fee, to be determined based on the shipping address and number of bottles. Shipping wine is extremely expensive. We are sorry about this, but we have no other choice. Please make sure there's always someone at the address you enter as your shipping address.

If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.


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If you'd like to reroute a package after it's been shipped, we can do so for a $20 re-routing fee. We cannot re-route a package across state borders. For any change of address, please contact us as soon as possible, ideally within 1-2 days from placing the order or we cannot guarantee we'll be able to reroute or change your order's shipping address.


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If you'd like to cancel an order after it's been shipped, we can do so upon payment of a small cancellation fee – the amount depends on the size of the order. Carriers charge us a lot of money to recall a package en-route.


Heat/Frost damage

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Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

3. Please track your package using the tracking service.

4. The carrier will attempt delivery a maximum of 3 times. After 3 delivery attempts, your package will be sent back to our warehouse.**

*Please ensure your email address is correct; otherwise, you will not receive the order and shipping confirmation emails.

**If delivery is attempted 3 times without success, or if you fail to retrieve your package from the carrier depot by the stated deadline, the shipping fee will not be refunded to the customer.

Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

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Producer profile

La Boutanche A. Knauss

Weingut Knauss is based in Strümpfelbach, a village in the Rems Valley east of Stuttgart. Winemaking in the family was previously a part-time activity — earlier generations worked at the nearby Mercedes-Benz factory and made wine as a side pursuit. Andi Knauss took over the estate in 2004 after completing wine school and an apprenticeship in Austria, where he learned organic viticulture. His father had already left the local cooperative in 1995, giving Andi a foundation to build from.

The estate covers approximately 14 hectares and is certified organic. Soils across the holdings include Gipskeuper, Mergel (marl), Schilfsandstein, Kieselsandstein, and Stubensandstein, all layered over a Jurassic limestone base at 300–400 meters elevation. Knauss farms over 100 individual plots across Strümpfelbach and surrounding villages, including Schnait. Riesling occupies the west-facing slopes of the Rems Valley; red varieties including Trollinger, Lemberger, and Pinot Noir are planted on the east-facing side.

Across the range, native yeast fermentation and minimal sulfur additions are standard. Some cuvées, including this La Boutanche Trollinger, are made with no sulfur, added yeast, sugar, or any other additives. The La Boutanche bottling is fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel vats and sold under a screw cap in a one-liter format. Knauss produces this wine in partnership with importer Selection Massale as part of the La Boutanche project, which launched in 2012 to make high-quality natural wine accessible at an entry-level price.

Wine region

Württemberg, Germany

Württemberg stretches along the Neckar river and its tributaries — including the Rems, Enz, Kocher, and Jagst — through the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. The sheltered river valleys create microclimates with long, warm summers, mild winters, and around 1,600 sunshine hours per year. Soils vary significantly across the region, with Muschelkalk (shell limestone), Keuper, loess loam, and sandstone all present in different subzones. Stuttgart, the regional capital, sits within the appellation and holds over 400 hectares of vineyards inside the city limits.

Trollinger accounts for roughly 19 percent of all plantings in Württemberg and is considered the region's identity grape, historically called the 'Swabian national drink.' Nearly all of Germany's Trollinger stock — over 90 percent — grows here, almost exclusively the high-yielding Schiava Grossa clone. The Remstal, a valley east of Stuttgart carved by the Rems river, is a key subzone where producers like Weingut Knauss farm Jurassic limestone-derived soils at elevations between 300 and 400 meters. Trollinger ripens later than Riesling and requires warm, well-exposed sites to reach adequate sugar levels.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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