Rotkäppchen

Kloss & Foerster

In 1856 the brothers Moritz and Julius Kloss and their friend Carl Foerster opened a wine business in Freyburg (Unstrut) and began making sparkling wine.¹ In 1894 the red cap on the bottle gave its name to a new brand, Rotkäppchen ('Little Red Riding Hood').¹

GDR and after

In the German Democratic Republic the cellar was a state-owned enterprise; in 1988 Rotkäppchen sold 15.5 million bottles there, its highest volume at that time.¹ After 1990 the company was transferred to the Treuhand agency. In 1993 five senior employees, together with the family of the entrepreneur Harald Eckes-Chantré, bought it in a management buy-out.¹

Growth

According to the company, Rotkäppchen became the market leader for Sekt in Germany in 2001.¹ In 2002 it took over the brands Mumm, Jules Mumm and MM Extra from Seagram, in 2003 the Geldermann cellar in Breisach am Rhein, and in 2006 it bought back the founders' brand Kloss & Foerster.¹ The Mumm brand was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1922 and is now based in Eltville.²

Today

Rotkäppchen-Mumm Sektkellereien GmbH has its seat in Freyburg (Unstrut) and works at six sites from Bremen to Valdobbiadene; the visitor centre Rotkäppchen Erlebniswelt opened in 2023.² For the legal categories of German sparkling wine see Germany. Another large German house is Henkell in Wiesbaden.