Dominik was born and bred in the Pfalz region. His grandfather cultivated vines there and his parents, a nursery teacher and civil engineer, kept them on. Dominik always suspected that his commitment to wine would run deeper, acknowledging from a very early age that a desk job wasn’t for him. Towards the end of his high-school studies he decided to dedicate his working life to wine.
In 2010, at just 29 years of age, he was working at a winery in California when he heard that the Koehler-Ruprecht estate was changing hands. He had a chat with new owners, the Sauvage family, who ended up asking him to run the estate. He said yes, and got to work immediately following that vintage in the US.
Since then, Sona has been working alongside the great Bernd Philippi, learning the methods established by the latter’s grandfather 100 years ago. Continuing these traditions following Philippi’s departure is of the essence, though Sona and the team are looking to add new lines of wine in the typical Koehler-Ruprecht style. Dominik enjoys the tranquillity of Kallstadt and likes to swim and cycle in his spare time. But he admits he doesn’t find a lot of that – at this stage in his life, he’s too enamoured of all aspects of winegrowing to take much time off.
