On Monday, March 23rd, a photograph and headline from an article in Volksfreund – a small news outlet based in Trier and providing “news for Trier, the Eiffel, the Mosel, and Luxembourg,” if you’re not familiar – appeared on the Instagram account of a U.S. wine lover. I’ll admit I’m not a regular reader of Volksfreund and this all came as a bit of a shock to me.
The headline read: “A well-known winemaker changes jobs – but what is a climate adaptation manager?” And there was a photograph of our Florian Lauer, in a sports coat of all things. (In the nearly twenty years I’ve known Lauer, I’ve seen him in a sports coat maybe twice?)
The site has a pay wall, so reading the entire article, unless you were willing to fork over 39 Euros, was impossible, but the teaser-line read: “The fact that the owner of a VDP winery is changing industries is likely to raise eyebrows. But this has nothing to do with the wine industry crisis. Here’s what’s behind the move…”
And here I was, literally, as I saw this Instagram story, working on an offer of large-format Lauer bottlings to celebrate his 20th vintage. The previous month we made an immersive video all about Lauer; we made Lauer hoodies.
We even had Lauer snowboard down the Feils vineyard on Instagram Live! And there was no snow on the ground. You can’t make this stuff up.
The truth is, obviously, much more complicated than the headline, though it does make a jarring Instagram story, especially without any context or explanation.
So for those who would like to go a bit deeper, here’s a more detailed explanation, as far as I understand it all.
It should be said that parts of this story I knew, though they had been presented to me a bit differently.
I had spoken with Lauer sometime late last year (or early this year?) and he let me know that he had taken on two partners: Max Kirsch, the viticulturist who had worked with him for a decade, and Max Zellerhoff, his right-hand man in the cellar for the last five years. Florian simply said, nearing the end of his second decade leading the estate, that he needed help. He couldn’t work the long hours needed every week any longer alone. It also seemed like the right time to give the two people who had helped make the reputation of the estate, a part of the estate. (There’s a photograph of the team, with both Max’s, below.)
All of this felt right to me. I honestly didn’t question it or think too much about it.
Then last week I heard rumors that Florian was taking a “government job” and that he had some sort of illness.
I called him right away, obviously.
Both of these things, as it turned out, are true, in a way. Florian will be helping with a project based in the Saar studying the environmental impact of climate change. And Florian is dealing with some health issues.
Without going into it too deeply, Lauer has two separate stomach issues, both of which are wildly exacerbated by the acidity in wine. While the problems are not serious – this is not life or death – the short, cruel, ironic truth is that Florian cannot really drink wine anymore. He can still taste wine, though even that should be done sparingly.
And that, so I learned, is the deeper reality of the situation.
Yet the article misrepresents everything more than a little. What the article misses – and what the headline completely ignores – is that the government job is not a full-time job. The headline also ignores that the gig is only for eighteen months. As the job involves studying how the environment reacts to climate change, it’s also not really changing industries. It’s a different side of the same coin – something Florian is passionate about and has been studying for years, albeit through winemaking.
The article also doesn’t mention that he’ll be working mostly from home – which is to say at the estate. It doesn’t mention that he will still be involved, on a day-to-day basis, with the winery. It fails to mention that he is still a partner at the estate that bears his name, that is his home, his love, his passion, and his life… but he needs help. It honestly feels a bit misleading, calling Lauer “an advisor.”
It fails to mention he’ll continue to work with the same team he’s been working with for the last five to ten years.
So what do we make of it all? I suspect, for the average wine lover, none of this will really mean anything.
In a way, as Florian said to me, nothing has really changed. He is still at the estate; it is still the same exact team he’s had for the past five-plus years in the vineyards and in the cellar making the wine.
On the other hand, I guess 2025 marks the final vintage where Florian was, in theory if not in practice, 100% in charge of every decision at the estate. As Florian said to me, I guess it’s the end of the estate “as a one man show.” So in a way our big-bottle offer takes on a new, unplanned, meaning.
Now, going forward, Florian is part of a team, though I think it’s important to acknowledge that this is not the standard employer/employee relationship. This is not the boss and the workers, but rather three equal partners, each deeply interwoven into the estate, trying to make the greatest wines they can… as they’ve been doing for the last many years.
For the moment, what we can say is that we wish Florian, our great friend, all the health, the calm, and the resolve in this transition… and we can’t wait to taste what the team has in store. The last five to ten years have been superb at Lauer; and the Saar is, after all, the Saar.
