What is the expression of terroir in the human character? Is there such a thing? Can a person be defined by the sum of their environment over time? Do people who predominantly face south-west and exert their energy upon loamy soil develop a denser and more robust constitution? Does the dirt beneath your feet have an effect on how your brain and body interface with the life around it? Perhaps it’s not as explicit as the effect it has on grapes, but to be sure, the environment has left its mark upon you as much as it has on the people crafting your wine.

The contemplation of the producer’s terroir is very much a part of the label. The label is a short form contract with the consumer. It’s a promise with a specific reference point in time. It is the year the terroir of the ground stops its influence and the terroir of the producer begins to dominate the fate of what will eventually become the product. The balancing act between the two is in sum the promise, the contact, the label.

This is how the Erggelet Brothers bottle the extensive history of German wine making while farming grapes in Contra Costa County.

Julian (the younger of the two) and Sebastian were born on the edge of the Cold War in Freiburg, Germany and would eventually be taken to the east shortly after the country’s unification. The world was drawn in sharp contrasts between the West and East as Julian and

Sebastian became some of the first Western citizens to be submerged in the exhaust of the communist agenda in Germany.

They were also some of the last, as the remainder of the perpetual gray that communism cast upon the eastern part of Germany was repaired by the time they reached adulthood. So, in a way, they had the unique experience of growing up in the echo of a socio-political disaster. Fertile ground for developing some solid character.

The decision to move to the former East Germany was driven by the divorce of their parents. Their new life started alongside the new Germany. Their home in the east was and is known as the birthplace of the Reformation, where Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door to the castle church. A place of significant beginnings, Wittenberg tempered the boys’ idyllic upbringing and perhaps, like Luther’s Theses, planted a seed. Julian and Sebastian lingered in Wittenberg, in the former East until graduating high school.

After high school Julian returned to the western side of Germany, Freiburg in Baden, the place where the brothers draw their cultural identity. The place of their grandparents and ancestors for countless generations. This is where they were raised, by an English speaking mother from America who herself had German immigrant parents. This was a place of comfort and where Julian studied medicine, and immersed himself in family and history. 

While reflecting Julian said, “Our family was from Freiburg and for my brother and me who were a little challenged in what we were going to do in life, there was some comfort to drawing back to that region.”

His family narrative had played with Freiburg as the backdrop, “My grandfather would always have his wine and honey from the area, and we’d hear stories, many of which revolved around wine. Wine was always special.”

It was in this environment that wine made a lasting impact on Julian, although he didn’t know it yet. Its undeniable influence was working its way through the sinew of his character while he studied, ran an art gallery, and produced music events on the side.

During this time his brother Sebastian was in Bavaria. Not to be outdone by his younger brother, the older Erggelet was working towards a double-degree.

At the end of the academic sprint Sebastian remembers, “It was 2009, I was in Bavaria, finished school and I didn’t know what to do. I got a Bachelors in philosophy and economics. It was a great general schooling in things that aren’t practical in life and things that are very practical in life.”

Upon completion he contemplated a masters in political theory. The summer before he committed to what was basically the start of a life in academia, he got cold feet. A thought ran through his mind and wouldn’t relent. Sebastian had to scratch an itch. In his words, “The practicality of working with my hands seemed very appealing.”

It’s contemplations like this, assumptions distorted by the ignorance and absurd optimism of youth, that nurture the artistic intellect. If Sebastian's conscious mind was up until then mostly occupied by the orderly and analytical right brain, the pursuit of romanticizing the practicality of physical work must have been like steroids for his left brain. The decision was made to temporarily abandon the masters program. Perhaps for the first time in his life Sebastian was making irrational decisions, and with luck on his side, it paid off. He started a degree in viticulture, and got an apprenticeship in the Kaiserstuhl on the French border. He joined Weingut Salwey, a storied producer of Pinot.

Sebastian remembers the time there fondly, “What I learned there was consistency and a very long term view. A view that is longer than one person’s lifetime. There’s not a lot of industries that take that kind of perspective.”

The lessons were life-changing but difficult to attain, “That was a very interesting learning curve for me.” He reflects, “That was really humbling for me, being this snooty 21-year-old that knew very little of hard work. I struggled with that for maybe half a year, and it took me apart, and I put myself back together and started appreciating it. 

This was the era where Julian and Sebastian’s journey towards a life of viticulture began in earnest, although perhaps they didn’t know it. They started down a road which led toward an invisible horizon, not knowing that they would meet each other at the first crossroads. 

While Julian was learning how to hustle in Freiburg, Sebastian was immersed with Salwey, later Weingut Krauß, and Weingut Bürklin-Wolf. Separately, yet together, the brothers were learning the different sides of what makes a successful wine business.

And so it was, Julian finished Medicine, Sebastian finished Viticulture and Enology, and in August of 2014 the brothers took separate flights, two weeks apart, to Napa.

Julian marveled at his older brother,  “His focus was on quality, depth, understanding and verticality, and I was…you know I had a lot less experience and a lot less exposure, but was a lot more versed in being the wheeler and dealer. I was organizing art festivals and ran an art gallery on the side,” and dared to be bold, “I was available, my brother was available, we were both ready for an adventure, so we thought why not give California a try?”

Sebastian got an internship easily, but Julian did not. He struggled to convince vintners to abandon the status quo and give him a chance. He puts it, “My mishmash experience didn’t fit the conventional Napa circuit, so I needed someone thinking outside of the box…so Aaron Pott hired me. Aaron Pott. He’s one of the more rebellious icons in Napa valley.”

Napa was a mystery packaged in a familiar box with an inviting bow tied around it. The brothers soon discovered the unexpected complexities of a culture that was very unlike anything they were used to. Julian thought, “Napa was a scene where the money puts on the party and they want to be associated with the energy, and at some point we realized we were a part of the energy.”

Julian describes the brothers’ experience during that time, “We were poor and interested in what was happening and had this idea about what winemaking meant to us. The more we stayed in Napa the more we learned that is a very different business and a very different world, and we’ve been grappling with that ever since.

When Aaron Pott was hired to restructure a recently acquired operation in Contra Costa, the opportunity for Julian to run a winery presented itself. The buyers were a foreign private equity firm that knew just enough about running a successful vineyard and winery to hire Pott, and he named Julian as the new winemaker. The position also demanded a rethinking of the processes and a rebuilding of the brand – a job more complex and challenging than starting from scratch. While the offer would have likely deterred more seasoned vintners, it was Julian’s opportunity to prove his ability.

Julian fondly recalls, “Aaron called up and said, ‘Hey can you take over this operation in Contra Costa.’ I didn’t even know where Contra Costa was… He walked me in and introduced me as the new winemaker and I had to figure out how to fix it. I decided to take my moral compass and asset of problem solving and merge that to build a successful winery.” As a newcomer to the country with little network and family for encouragement or support, he got it done.

“Contra Costa is our territory now,” Julian said,” I was the young kid from Napa      with a European heritage coming into a rural county that had one winery, which was struggling. I was met with a lot of resentment, but I think once we started to push the organic agenda and do things differently, then they realized I’m the exact opposite of what they feared I would be. I’m there to integrate with the community. I met a lot of people and opened a lot of doors.”

While a genuine and thoughtful person, Julian is not one to go around with a perpetual smile to shake hands and kiss babies. There is no future for him in American politics. His demeanor skews more stoic than jolly, and perhaps it was his character that resonated with the local farmers.

While he was assembling supplies for the local wine club gift baskets (he abandoned the previous assortment of mass-produced cheese squares and prosciutto-lookalike meat products) Julian visited the local farmers market and was drawn to a stall where some, “young hippies were giving away produce.”

There is something poetic about a young, German winemaker who runs on structured precision being seduced by a group of frolicking hippies handing out fruits and vegetables. Like a cobra hypnotized by the undulating melodies of a flute, Julian had no chance to escape unaffected.

That day he got the elements he needed to fulfill his wine club baskets, and something he needed to fulfill his life: a wife. 

“There were 30 acres of vineyards around the house that I was living in, which belonged to the family. So now there was a canvas,” and that changed Julian’s perspective of Contra Costa forever. Now the stakes were high. The family farm became the focus, and he applied all his learnings and effort into helping build something sustainable for the family, and beneficial for the community. 

At that moment in time Julian found himself working the land of a multi-generational farming business, not at the top of the heap, but rather at the bottom, in the middle, and all around. He became involved in the daily minutia and physicality that his brother had fallen in love with back in Germany all those years ago when he abandoned a life in academia. It was right then and there that Ergg     elet Brothers started. Two hands, with embedded dirt under their fingernails, stained by dirt and plant matter, came together in a handshake that would bind their fortunes together as one.

The terroir of Contra Costa made him resonate with his brother Sebastian on a level they hadn’t experienced before. Contra Costa and the Kaiserstuhl personified, with a mission. 

But like all good endeavors, the beginnings were difficult. Sebastian and Julian watched as the natural wine scene elevated and abandoned young winemakers in rapid succession. The ability of some social media savvy labels to ramp up acclaim in short order without the quality and consistency to back up the praise frustrated the brothers. There is some sort of balance which exists where pragmatism and charisma are mutually exclusive in human beings. The deliciously flamboyant and outgoing are rarely enticed to examine and investigate daily details with precision on a routine schedule. Likewise, you probably won’t find a well-crafted TikTok duet with Sebastian and Julian. As the older brother puts it, “We’re not the rebels, we do things a little bit different.” 

The brothers didn’t lack confidence in their practice, procedures, or product. Their plan was for the wine to speak for itself, and preferred a slow build based on honest recognition. Sebastian especially spent little time contemplating a social media strategy. Instead, he spent his time in the fields, analyzing and contemplating how to improve the processes he was responsible for. 

Julian summed it up with, “If we wanted to be successful in Contra Costa, we had to make Contra Costa successful.” With that attitude the brothers set out to build up the region by using their industry knowhow and business acumen to improve the economic landscape of the region. Through their efforts and the hard work of local farmers and community members, Contra Costa is now becoming a respected wine appellation, and a recognized culinary destination. 

The brothers also run an organic farm alongside their winery. It serves as a demonstration farm called “The Urban Edge.” It’s a living educational platform that helps the Erggelet brothers make good on their promise to be a source of information and community improvement. They do all the good stuff there. They run on solar, even have an electric tractor, and host a myriad of chicken and ducks     . It’s quite a paradise if you’re into sustainable, regenerative farming that helps out the community    

Of course, they are best known for their reds. Mediterranean reds planted over a century ago. With Julian’s oversight, and Sebastian’s mastery of enology      the reds are exemplary. The brothers celebrate the region by helping farmers manage their grapes and buy their fruit to produce many of their wines. Mataro, and Carignane are putting Contra Costa on the map. They have become appellation exclamation points and the world is taking notice.

On the organic farm, they’re diving into Contra Costa white wine with Malvasia Bianca, Maccabeu, Xarel-lo and Petit Manseng in an effort to repeat the success of the reds and put Contra Costa whites firmly on the map.

Much of this is in the capable hands of Sebastian. The older brother and by Julian’s admission, a true master of winemaking, is very demanding of himself and extremely dedicated to the vines and wines. While some winemakers take a hands-off approach and let the wine make itself more or less, Sebastian’s attitude is one of nurturer and caretaker (with a very scientific and precise attitude).

Surprisingly, even with this attitude, and coming from a contemporary viticultural education, he prefers for the process to involve as little intervention as possible, “The wines that I really enjoyed ended up being wines that weren’t made how I was taught at school. They were made traditionally, slowly. It’s risky. A lot more can go wrong. If you don’t know what’s going on, more can go wrong”

Things like waiting for the yeast to settle out to create clarity rather than assisting filtration by mechanical or other means. Sebastian came across many stories from winemakers in Germany and France who had been part of multi-generational wineries that went back deep into the times of the French monarchy. He tasted excellence, listened to techniques, and slowly developed a robust toolkit of options he deploys today.

Sebastian decided that the benefits of efficiency simply didn’t justify the losses in quality. That would be the left brain talking, the side that emerged before graduate school, a key component in the endeavor to elevate and illuminate.

His attitude on SO2 also deviates from the text books. He takes the harder road in

search of excellence, and that means adding as little as possible. This requires attention at the molecular level, and is very difficult to achieve when quality and consistency are top considerations. Sebastian’s molecular approach is apparent in every bottle. Not many vintners commit themselves to the degree that he has. His wines are microbiologically stable and protected from oxidation and other flaws through his rigorous efforts to maintain balance.

“We explore the extremes and limits on each side with the process. We do this with everything, and as the pendulum swings back and forth we hone in and improve” is Sebastian’s shorthand for how he gets the level of quality and consistency across what’s become an unpredictable climate.

From Sebastian’s encyclopedic knowledge of viticulture and winemaking there’s a handoff back to Julian as the Erggelet Brothers continue to build a legacy in Contra Costa. They’re using the building blocks that were already there, the vineyards are a century old and the families that run them as well, but they’ve brought a perspective that’s opened up some new opportunities. The brothers may be the most respected label in the region, and thanks to their business practices, Contra Costa is getting some long overdue recognition.

Sebastian and Julian are relentless in their pursuits. They are continuing to produce their list of outstanding reds, and putting in a lot of work to repeat the success with their whites. The standouts for 2025 will certainly be the whites, establishing a new era for Contra Costa wines.

If the Erggelet Brothers were a song, their wines would be the chorus, and their organic farming and community efforts would be the verses. The Urban Edge farm project is an exemplar of how regenerative farming can be ecologically and economically sound. The dynamic nature of their operation is unlike any other. It’s because the rhythm of the Kaiserstuhl and Freiburg in Baden has been grafted onto the Italian rootstock in Contra Costa.