Almost no estate-bottled wine from Baden is sold in the export market. Like small-farm California wine, the region’s best production is sold to private customers directly at the wineries, and any that remains is drunk at the famous resorts. “I never sell wine in the Ausland,” Andreas Laible told me on my first visit.

In fact, it took three visits in three successive years, and the intercession of Jochen Ratzenberger to convince him to sell us just 50 cases of 2002 vintage wine. Now, we're "on the list," receiving small amounts of his beautiful, Baden wines every vintage since.