Abracadabra – Hannah Fuellenkemper

Abracadabra
Hannah Fuellenkemper
Chaniat, Auvergne, France

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Originally from Germany, Hannah Fuellenkemper spent part of her childhood in the US before moving to the UK. After relocating to Amsterdam for a masters in law (and completing it), she realised she was pursuing the wrong career. 

Hannah discovered natural wine through food and writing, and a first, unforgettable bottle of Ploussard. Later that year on a trip to Jura, Hannah knocked on the winemakers’ door and stumbled into her first experience of a tasting, leaving with 6 bottles of Bruyère-Houillon and a thirst for more knowledge.

Having decided against law, Hannah found this world of natural wine spoke to her. She tasted wine, wrote about it (on her blog and Simon Woolf’s ‘The Morning Claret’), sought out natural wine spots in Amsterdam and worked at the city’s popular Bar Centraal, but found she didn’t get on with service or with memorising reams of technical information.

Hannah visited winemakers across France, happiest around a kitchen table with good company and unmarked bottles. Her first harvest was in ’16 with Baptiste Cousin, where she discovered the intense combination of very hard work, a lot of play and unbounded generosity.

Over the following years she was frequently on the move. A harvest in Veneto, Italy, with Costadila, followed by cellars and vineyards across France, working with Manuel di Vecchi of Vinyer de la Ruca in Banyuls (find his wines here), François Saint-Lo in Loire and Julie Balagny in Beaujolais. She lived with Andrea Calek in Ardèche while working for Sylvain Bock, and pruned with Jérôme Saurigny in Loire (find his wines here) who gifted her a small press, which she still uses today alongside a newer hydraulic one.

These experiences have all been part of the journey to her current location in Auvergne. Here, for the first time, she has her own cellar, some sense of stability and, as of ’23, her own pump. Although she started making wine in ’19, it’s this location that saw the birth of Abracadabra, so-called ‘because it all feels a bit magical’. 

Since 2019 her production size has gradually increased, from 1,500 bottles in 2019 to 11,000 in 2023, followed by the decision to reduce back to around 8,000. Working as a small, largely solo project with intermittent help and every bottle passing through her hands, a larger quantity than this could quickly become overwhelming.

All the wines are négoce and Hannah has always worked with a zero-zero approach: nothing added, nothing taken away. The wines are made mostly in fibreglass tanks, with the odd barrel, and are always in the bottle for one year minimum before release. She releases twice a year, which enables her to give an extra 6–8 months to a wine that might not have been ready to drink in spring.