Nicola Libelli of Dr. Bürklin-Wolf

“If you want to make exceptional wine, you have to feel at home because it’s about so many little things—little things that you have to observe and feel and catch over the season to make the wine. It’s always important to be there and to feel the place.” – Nicola Libelli

Nicola Libelli feels at home in the Pfalz. Though he was born and raised in Northern Italy, a taste of 1992 Merkelbach Kinheimer Rosenberg Riesling Spätlese completely changed the course of his life, compelling him to move to Germany and learn everything about German wine.

At the age of 26, he was unexpectedly thrust into the head winemaking role at one of Germany's most historic estates, Dr. Bürklin-Wolf, where he has since earned his reputation as one of the best Riesling winemakers in the world.

In this episode, Nicola reflects on the mentors who shaped his life and how a culture of friendship and healthy competition among winemakers can move the wine industry in the right direction. Meet Nicola at FLXcursion in Geneva, NY June 27-29, 2026.

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Transcript

Introduction

Nicola Libelli 0:03

If you want to make really good wines or exceptional wine or whatever you want to call it, you have to feel at home. Because it's about so many little things—little things that you have to observe, and you have to feel, and you have to catch over the season to make the wine. It's always important to be there and to feel the place.

Harmon Skurnik 0:23

Hey, this is Harmon Skurnik, and welcome to another episode of Skurnik Unfiltered. Today I have with me none other than Michael Lykens, who is the portfolio manager for all things German.

Michael Lykens 0:37

Hello.

Harmon Skurnik 0:37

And you recently sat down with the winemaker from the esteemed estate from the Pfalz, Dr. Bürklin-Wolf.

Michael Lykens 0:48

I did. I sat down with Nicola Libelli, our wonderful Italian-German colleague who is making some of the best wines coming out of all of Germany, but particularly this small section of the Pfalz.

Harmon Skurnik 1:04

Pretty unusual to have an Italian winemaker making Riesling in Germany.

Michael Lykens 1:08

Yes, it is slightly unusual to have an Italian dedicating his life to Riesling. But when you think about it, he's Italian and he's romantic. He fell in love with a German woman, and one thing led to the next. But simultaneously he told me on one of our last trips out there, that it was actually a wine from a super small estate that we represent, Merkelbach, in the Mosel, that really turned the light on for him as far as how magical Riesling can be. He had a bottle of Merkelbach in when he was in his 20s, and that's what moved him in the right direction.

Harmon Skurnik 1:52

He had a Riesling epiphany a long time ago, and from what I understand, he came to Bürklin-Wolf as an intern and then became the assistant winemaker. Unfortunately, the winemaker at the time had an untimely death, and he took over at a very young age, right?

Michael Lykens 2:08

Yeah, exactly right. He had attended Geisenheim University and got an opportunity to be a seasonal worker at von Winning first...

Harmon Skurnik 2:21

Which is a very close neighbor of Bürklin-Wolf, right?

Michael Lykens 2:24

Yeah, we're maybe a 20-minute walk. It's really not that far, even though it's two villages away. Nicola didn't speak any German. It's actually kind of funny because the German dialect that he learned is this very Southern German, not what they would call High German, so he was thrown into it rather quickly. And then yeah, he found himself, years later, at Bürklin-Wolf learning a lot, and then he took over, as you said.

Harmon Skurnik 2:53

And now he's renowned. I mean, he's one of the best Riesling winemakers in Germany.

Michael Lykens 2:59

He absolutely is. He surrounds himself with really great winemakers that push each other to new heights, and he landed at a place that is very dedicated to quality. When Bettina Bürklin took over the estate in 1990, they made a commitment to quality, selling off all of their non-esteemed vineyards. Anything below Premier Cru, they essentially got rid of and quickly adopted organic and biodynamic farming practices. The whole culture surrounding Nicola has really helped him elevate his game as well.

Harmon Skurnik 3:36

And when we talk about his game, we're talking about—for the vast majority of the wines—dry Rieslings. We're talking about the epitome of quality in dry Riesling, right?

Michael Lykens 3:45

Yeah, exactly right. Something that we always look for in dry Rieslings is, of course, Riesling has wonderfully sharp acidity, but it's perfectly ripe fruit that also tells a story about the place. These are the things that we look for in the portfolio as we taste through the category. There's precision, but there's also soul behind it and a story to tell.

Harmon Skurnik 4:10

He's an interesting cat. Is he coming to the States anytime soon?

Michael Lykens 4:14

You know, he is going to be coming to the United States. There's a conference in the Finger Lakes starting on June 26th, where Nicola Libelli will be there with a group of our winemakers, and it's a really exciting event. There'll be wine dinners and there'll be Riesling crawls, à la pub crawls, and there'll be seminars moderated by some of the industry's best, both journalists and wine professionals. It's a really interesting thing, and tickets are available now if you look up FLXcursion.

Harmon Skurnik 4:44

It's every other year, and this is the fourth or fifth rendition. I've been to it, it's amazing. The Finger Lakes is really close. It takes place in Geneva, a three or four-hour drive from New York City, and it's really, really fun. So, on that note, why don't we sit back and listen to your conversation with Nicola?

Michael Lykens 5:04

Excellent.

Nicola's background

Michael Lykens 5:05

Today we are with Nicola Libelli, cellar master extraordinaire of Dr. Bürklin-Wolf in the Pfalz region. Nicola has been working with Skurnik Wines & Spirits for the past five years and has quickly become part of the family. I'm super excited to spend any time together and talk about wine and food and anything else that comes up. It's good to have you here.

Nicola Libelli 5:33

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Michael Lykens 5:35

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Nicola Libelli 5:36

Always exciting to be in New York. I feel the contrast from where I come from. I live in a village with 700 people, and when you arrive here, probably one block, has the same amount of people.

Michael Lykens 5:51

Tell everybody who doesn't know you a little bit about your background, as far as where you grew up. How'd you end up at Bürklin-Wolf?

Nicola Libelli 5:59

Like my name says, it's not a super typical German name: Nicola Libelli. I'm from the northern part of Italy, from Emilia-Romagna, more exactly from Piacenza. I ended up at Bürklin-Wolf, now it's been 15 years. Long time. Wow. When I think about it, it's like, wow. I ended up there because I loved Riesling already. I was studying viticulture and enology in Italy, and I fell in love with Riesling, with German Riesling. I remember trying my first Riesling, the 1992 Riesling Spätlese Kinheimer Rosenberg from Merkelbach. I tried that wine in a bottle shop in Piacenza, and I was like, "What is that?" It drove me crazy, and then, I'm old enough that I can say, back then there was no Instagram or stuff where you could source information, so I bought myself the book from Jancis Robinson and Mark Johnson, The Wine Atlas, and I started to, you know, under the blanket, like, writing down information about Germany. And now I'm there, at one of the most historical wineries in Germany. It's like a dream that came true. It's an honor every day to go there and be able to do that.

Michael Lykens 7:11

Did you ever get a chance to go and visit the Merkelbachs?

Nicola Libelli 7:13

Yeah, I met them. Sadly, they passed away, like, two years ago, and I was there with my mentor, which was even more special—my mentor from Italy—and it was a very special day. Super humble people. We were just sitting in the living room, tasting wine. Have you been there?

Michael Lykens 7:31

Yeah, there's no better experience than sitting in that parlor, and Alfred, you never knew what he was gonna pull out from the cellar—something from the 1960s, something from the 1970s.

Nicola Libelli 7:41

I'm happy I could experience that.

Michael Lykens 7:45

Yeah. Special, special place. That's certainly a wine that will put the hooks into you.

Nicola Libelli 7:51

Yeah, definitely. It changed my life! And then I met this girl, actually in California, and this girl is now my wife. She's also from Germany. It's like the Lord of the Rings, like the ring. It's a very powerful ring!

Michael Lykens 8:13

Absolutely.

Nicola Libelli 8:14

That's why I'm still there.

Finding home in the Pfalz

Michael Lykens 8:19

Well, it's a good way to end up, in the Pfalz. Tasting the wines that you produce from these really beautiful vineyards, it seems to me that it's home, because the wines themselves show so much love and appreciation from the place. What was it about Wachenheim, and this section of the Pfalz, that you realized: this is the place that I need to be?

Nicola Libelli 8:42

First of all, when I met the previous winemaker, Mr. Fritz Knorr, who was the fourth-generation winemaker at Bürklin-Wolf, which is already quite special. I met him, and I felt very comfortable with him. Very, very humble, very into wine. He was really able to make you feel comfortable straight away. And then he passed away very suddenly in 2012. I had to take over this way. It wasn't the plan, of course, but you know, life happens. And at the same time, coming from the northern part of Italy and moving to Pfalz, it's not such a cultural shock, apart from the language. It's pretty much the same culture. Pfalz is a very special region for Germany, it's very open-minded, very Italian.

Michael Lykens 9:38

I've heard people call it "the Tuscany of Germany."

Nicola Libelli 9:41

Yeah, that's true. Climatically and people-wise, it's really the Tuscany of Germany, and that's why it's home now. If you want to make really good wines or exceptional wine or whatever you want to call it, you have to feel at home because it's about so many little things—little things that you have to observe, and you have to feel, and you have to catch over the season to make the wine. It's always important to be there and to feel the place.

Michael Lykens 10:09

Talk to me about your impressions of Bettina when you first came to the estate. She was a visionary for Bürklin-Wolf, from the moment that she took over the estate.

Nicola Libelli 10:24

She's a very, very brave woman. First of all, she decided to dramatically change the approach of the winery. They reduced the surface by ~30%, and the production by almost two-thirds, which is impressive. Then she decided that if there's a wine from a single vineyard, it's going to be a dry wine, and that's it. There's not going to be, like, 10-15 different kinds of wines from a single vineyard, and that, back in the 1990s, was pretty brave. And she was brave again when she decided to do biodynamics on 80 hectares. And then when Fritz died—the guy was there since 1982 to 2012—she put a 26-year-old Italian guy as chief winemaker of such a winery, with such an heritage. Wow. Yeah, she's one of the bravest people I know. And at the same time, she let us try to put the best that our terroir is giving us into the bottle, which is special.

Michael Lykens 11:32

Yeah. We definitely taste it. When I think of the wines, I'm always blown away by the purity of the expression of the site, especially in this day and age. Either the wines are really, really ripe and lacking acidity or they only have acidity and are are lacking some of that phenolic ripeness. But when I taste your wines, it's there is power, but it's not about overt power, it's always quite elegant.

Nicola Libelli 11:59

Thank you.

Michael Lykens 12:01

So much of this is how great farmers you are, and you have maybe one of the best vineyard managers in Germany.

Nicola Libelli 12:11

Maybe the best, yeah. And I don't say it because he's a friend of mine. He is a very good friend of mine, but wine is teamwork. After many years, we finally arrived to the point where it's a bunch of friends making the wine at the winery. We were friends, we became friends with other guys, and sometimes it's a bit childish. We keep it simple. It's wine—we don't take ourselves too seriously, but at the same time we are super focused and super respectful of what we are doing and where we are. It's a big heritage, so we try to be ourselves and put one hundred percent of us into the project. And Jan has a special sensibility for wine growing and for people, because it's a big team. It's 80 hectares, so it's a big team. Especially during harvest, we understand each other without talking—we just look at each other when we're tasting grapes. For example, when we decide if we want to pick or not, we go outside, we taste the grapes, we look at each other, we don't talk, and we move to the next vineyard. We just say, "Maybe tomorrow." We don't start to analyze it or overanalyze it

A culture of friendship and competition

Nicola Libelli 13:28

too much.

Michael Lykens 13:28

That's so interesting. And when you were talking about your relationship with Jan Hock, it really made me think of your relationship with a lot of other winemakers that you have. I'm used to, in Germany, winemakers being very competitive with each other. And you seem to have this really great group of winemaker friends that are representative of the future of German wine. But when you look to some of your peers, do you look to them as inspiration? Do you look at them as competition? What is that like for you?

Nicola Libelli 14:06

For me, it has always been an inspiration. I think that if somebody is doing well, to be jealous is easy, but it's also, like, super negative. So why be jealous? Of course there's competition, but on the other side, it's much more like an opportunity, because wine is something collective of a bunch of people that love each other, and they want to come to Germany and not only come to Bürklin-Wolf. They want to experience different things every time. Imagine if you came to Germany and the only good winery was Bürklin-Wolf. Boring. Super boring! Why should you come? I think that it's very, very important that the community—as an Italian guy coming to Germany—friendship in general, and my group of friends, is something very, very, very important in my life. For me, it's one of the most precious things I have, and it makes me make better wines because we are very honest with each other. When we try the wines, if there's something not good, they tell me.

Michael Lykens 15:11

It's also representative of a large percentage of what the outside views as the top growers in the country. It's a lot of elite level wineries and winemakers all coming together. How did that all happen? You guys just met each other in passing and realized a common likeness?

Nicola Libelli 15:32

I think that the common thing was wine, the love for wine, and the the search for whatever you want to call it: perfection, or try to get to a very, very good level. And then it's about being honest to each other, being very open, sometimes having a fight. But at the end of the day, the passion is the glue of this group of people. And some of the guys are also in your portfolio, like Toby Knewitz. I cannot think of myself in Germany without the guys.

Michael Lykens 16:07

I bet. It's like a rock—someone who truly understands all of the issues, all the things that you're going through, and sometimes it's good to talk to somebody who knows exactly what you're going through. I think of the 2024 harvest as one of those really challenging years where you got a call from Cornelius Dönnhoff, who just experienced massive frost, and he asks for a little bit of help, and you say, "Let's do it."

Nicola Libelli 16:34

Straight away. I wasn't even thinking about quantity, what are we're going to miss, blah blah blah. I was just like, "Yes, of course." He needs to get something very good. It has to be—I don't want to say even better than the Wachenheimer we were doing, but at least as good as, where it's very representative, so he's not just going to get some stuff.

Michael Lykens 16:59

Yeah, like a good friend, like hospitality, you're going to get the best of what I have.

Nicola Libelli 17:04

He was getting one part of the of Rechbächel, the middle part, which super classical sandstone soil, which is typical from our part of the region, and he was getting old vines from Gerümpel, and this part of Gerümpel, which is straight on the border to Pechstein, so a lot of volcanic soil. I met Cornelius thanks to you guys here in New York. We met here for the first time, and I loved him straight away. He's a very funny guy. I think that every winery in Germany should have a picture of Helmut Dönnhoff in their tasting room and say "thank you" every day for what he did. Maybe the biggest personality in wine production in Germany in the past generation, of course, together with many other people. But Helmut opened many, many doors.

Michael Lykens 18:03

Yeah. I didn't realize it at the time, but the last vintage of Hermannshole Spätlese he made was the first wine that I tasted that blew me away. And I was like, this is this is actually going to be my direction of my life. Helmut is a visionary. I didn't know this until recently, but when Cornelius started making the wine—he started making the wine in 2007—they never really announced that to the world. And then when they officially made the announcement in 2013, they knew that they were going to get some people in the press saying, "Ah, see, the wines are really, really different. Go back and you can taste like the the 2008s and the 2009s, and you can see how wildly different these wines are." And Cornelius' response was, "Well, that's really interesting because I've actually been making the wine since 2007." So he was a visionary winemaker, but also completely understood everything that was happening and had all of the angles covered.

Nicola Libelli 19:01

The style didn't change dramatically—of course, it's a handcrafted product, so the person who is behind it's always giving his hint of like style. And at the end of the day, it's Bürklin-Wolf, it's the same with Dönnhoff. People talk about things.

Making Riesling accessible

Michael Lykens 19:19

People like to talk about things, and I wanted to get your take on the current state of the wine market right now, because there seems to be these battles going on between winemaking styles. There are a lot of stylized wines that are being released into the market, and then there's some pushback against more traditional or purist wineries out there. What are your thoughts on the current state of our wine industry, our wine market?

Nicola Libelli 19:51

As a producer, we have to really focus on what we're doing, and we have to put as much quality into the bottle as possible. Stay focused, don't panic, keep yourself on the right path. But at the same time, I think we have to make wine accessible to the next generation. It's wine. It's a pleasure. We just went for lunch at a very nice restaurant here in in Manhattan, and we had a bottle of wine, we had some food, and it was perfect. I think we have to keep it serious but simple, and we have to open it up for the people. They don't have to be afraid of which wine I'm going to choose. I think sometimes we made it a little bit too snobby or poshy or whatever you want to say. At the end of the day, it can travel from Europe to the US or from the US to Europe. I love all the wines of this world, it can travel through time. I cannot ask the previous winemaker about what he was doing, but I can try his wines. If you are able to read it, it's like an open book from the past. But still, don't make it complicated. Keep it simple, keep it serious. Keep it simple and serious and stay focused. And I think this is going to be the key to read and interpret the future. We have to travel, we have to tell the story, we have to come over. We have to make people fall in love with our wine and with us.

Michael Lykens 21:18

That was another thing you and I were just talking about, the idea that the economics of everything in the world has changed, not just the restaurant business and the wine business, of course, but the days of people being able to buy wine and sit on it for a longer period of time, even three to five years, especially in a restaurant setting, is just not a concept that works any longer because of how expensive it is to sit on this inventory. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on wines that are meant to be drunk now versus wines that are supposed to be cellared. What should we be doing in the business to adjust to our modern issues?

Nicola Libelli 21:57

I know a couple of places, especially in Italy, and I'm not going to mention them in this podcast, otherwise they're gonna be mobbed. But there are still some places where you can buy really aged stuff, but on the other side, it's part of the job of the winery to keep the wine and release it later. And at the same time, I think that the wines, especially in Germany, the wines that we are making now, due to many different things, maybe due to climate change and maybe the mindset that we have been having the last 20 years in terms of health of the soil and the approach of winemaking and everything else. I think that we are now able to make wines which are in different stages and styles, more approachable, from very young to 10 to 20 years old. Before it was like "Riesling has to age." Now Riesling is a product that you can really enjoy in different phases of its life. Drink it now. Buy 12 bottles, drink five, keep three for 10 years, and then keep the rest for another couple of years. At the winery, we are offering a bottle with 10-15 years of aging.

Michael Lykens 23:17

Oh, that's great. I think it's the magic of tasting some wine that's had a little bit of time to relax. Even these two styles of wines here, when we're talking about GGs or Grand Crus, they really reach their potential 10-15 years after the vintage. But if you just are able to give them a couple of years, those edges soften up. And there's one wine here today that I think deserves our attention, and that's Kirchenstück, which is sometimes referred to as like the Montrachet of the Pfalz. Can you talk a little bit about what makes this place so special?

Nicola Libelli 23:51

Or like the people in Burgundy say, Montrachet is the Kirchenstück of Burgundy. Ha! Kirchenstück is a really special place. It's 3.5 hectares. It's like a small amphitheater, especially where we are, so you have very deep soil which can hold water, they can hold all the energy that you have in the region. So you have all this power, but at the same time, because it's forest, so you have basalt, you have volcanic soil, you have this finesse. It's power with a lot of control, a lot of minerality, with a lot of depth. The wine can age forever. I love them when they're young because they have so much energy. You are experiencing it in the glass. It's a very unique place. We don't do anything super different culturally and winemaking-wise, but the wine always turns out to be something very special.

Michael Lykens 24:57

That's what we find with all of the most special wines: the place itself is so unique and special that you try not to do anything different winemaking-wise, because the place speaks for itself.

Nicola Libelli 25:09

Exactly.

Michael Lykens 25:09

Yeah, but we're always very thankful to get, whether it's 48 bottles or 60 bottles for the US, it's quite small, but it's a treat, which is why we didn't even open this one today.

Nicola Libelli 25:21

We can open it later if you want. It's a small production. We produce about 2,000 bottles in good vintages. Normally 1,500 bottles.

Michael Lykens 25:35

Rare. Worth seeking out.

Nicola Libelli 25:38

But it's always an emotion. You know, my parents don't come from the wine business. They don't know why a wine is good. They cannot tell you, Oh, I think that the acidity here is like that, blah blah, or this fruit or whatever. But you know, as Italians, they know what's good and what's bad, and every time we open a bottle of Kirchenstück, they're like, "Oh, that's good." And the bottle is empty in like 20 minutes, which at the end of the day, is the most important thing. It's basically the only thing that matters, because the truth is in the glass at the end of the day.

Michael Lykens 26:17

That's it. Thank you so much for being here in New York. I'm looking forward to a great week of lots of blind tastings and visiting a lot of our friends here in the city. Thanks for taking time to sit down and taste with us. Thank you for having me.

Nicola Libelli 26:33

I'm looking forward to the week. It's going to be a good week.

Harmon Skurnik 26:39

Skurnik Unfiltered is recorded at Skurnik Wines & Spirits headquarters in the Flatiron District of New York City. If you found the conversation interesting, please consider liking, subscribing, and leaving a review. You can stay up to date on our show and upcoming events by following @skurnikwines on Instagram and visiting our website at skurnik.com