Once a year, the winemakers of the Roter Hang (Red Slope) - the famous vineyard south of Mainz in the Rheinhessen area - invite for a wine tasting in the middle of the vineyard. The Roter Hang wine tasting takes place on a small road leading up the Roter Hang. There are booths, were you can buy wine and food, and plenty of chairs and tables, where you can sit down and enjoy the wine, the food and the gorgeous setting – you look over the vineyards down to the Rhine River and you see the skyline of Frankfurt am Main in the far distance.
This year, 29 winemakers participated and presented about 60 wines at 6 booths. Except for the first booth, where you could buy wines at the Gutswein and Ortswein level, at all other booths you could buy wines from 2 to 3 single vineyards of the 12 single vineyards of the Roter Hang. Thus, stopping at a booth allowed you to go through different interpretations of wine from the same vineyard.
Rheinhessen
Rheinhessen is an area that used to be known for winemakers often focusing on quantity and not quality. Rheinhessen is the largest viticultural region in Germany. Every fourth bottle of German wine comes from Rheinhessen. The high-yielder Mueller-Thurgau accounts for about 1/5 of the vineyards. Unlike in other German wine regions, where monoculture of the vine is the norm, here the many rolling hills are host to a wide variety of crops grown alongside the grape. Rheinhessen also has the rather dubious honor of being considered the birthplace of Liebfraumilch. At the same time, Rheinhessen is among Germany’s most interesting wine regions. A lot is happening there. There is an increasing group of mostly young and ambitious winemakers who want to produce and indeed do produce outstanding wine and not wines in large quantities.
Rheinterrasse
One region of Rheinhessen, the Rheinterrasse, had always been in a somewhat different league, the stretch of vineyards which runs from Bodenheim, south of Mainz, in the north to Mettenheim in the south, often referred to as the Rheinterrasse.
The vineyards of the Rheinterrasse have a favoured mesoclimate in comparison with others in the region. The Rheinterrasse accounts for one-third of the region's Riesling wines. The wines from the Rheinterrasse were at some point even more expensive than Bordeaux wines.
Roter Hang
The Roter Hang (Red Slope) is at the center of the Rheinterrasse. This steep slope extends for some five kilometers (three miles) with a total of 180 ha (445 acres) around Nierstein on the left bank of the Rhine.
The Roter Hang has a very special terroir, resulting from the drop of the Rheinhessen plateau before human life started. As a consequence of these movements the Roter Hang has a mineral-rich soil, a mixture of iron and clayish slate, which is at least 250 million years old (Permian Period). Further, the slope faces south to southeast, which helps in terms of the solar radiation. The red slate retains warmth, and additional warmth comes from the sunlight reflected from the surface of the Rhine.
Schiller’s Favorites (in Alphabetic Order)
I spent an afternoon at the Red Slope Festival, with my wife Annette Schiller and my grandchildren Lorelei and Otto Schiller. I met a number of my favorites Roter Hang winemakers and had a chance to chat with them, while tasting their wines. Some of my favorites I did not meet, because of one of 2 reasons: They are not a member of the Roter Hang Association (this is the case for Weingut Klaus Peter Keller for example) or they did not have a shift while I was there (this was the case for Weingut Gunderloch).
Weingut St. Antony
Weingut St. Antony is a winery that has high ambitions, the financial backing of its owner (since 2005) Detlev Meyer, and a gifted winemaker at the helm, Felix Peters, and holdings in the top-rated Nierstein sites Hipping, Ölberg, Orbel and Pettental. Varieties planted here are Riesling (80%), as well as Pinot Noir (8%), Pinot Blanc (8%) and Silvaner (4%). Annual production is around 160.000 bottles of wine. St. Antony is a member of the VDP association. A top producer.
Weingut Jakob Gerhardt
Weingut Jakob Gerhardt is a winery that I did not have on the radar until I visited China a few weeks ago. There, at the TopWine China 2014, I familiarized myself with the portfolio of Weingut Jakob Gerhard, which is expanding into the Chines market.
See:
Germany at TopWine China 2014 in Beijing, China
Weingut Gunderloch
Weingut Gunderloch is a winemaker with an interesting history that has reached fame world wide under the stewartship of Agnes Hasselbach-Usinger, a descendent of Carl Gunderloch, and her winemaker husband Fritz Hasselbach in charge. Gunderloch is very export-oriented and well known in the US, with more than 50%t of the production sold abroad. In 2002, the Winespectator carried an article about Fritz Hasselbach as the only winemaker to have received a perfect 100 points score for not only one, but three of his wines. The 1992, 1996 and 2001 Riesling TBA, Nackenheimer Rothenberg were each awarded 100 points.
My wife and I used to go by bike from Mainz to the Gunderloch Tavern on Sunday afternoon to eat a "Spundekaes" (a regional speciality) with a couple of glasses delicious Gunderloch wines. Unfortunately, they closed the Tavern a few years ago.
A year or so ago, Agnes and Carl’s dynamic son Johannes Hasselbach took over. One of his new projects is the Wurzelwerk project, with his sister and brother-in-law Stefanie and Alwin Jurtschitsch in Austria and Max von Kunow in the Saar Valley.
I was able to taste the excellent Weingut Gunderloch wines, but did not meet any of the Hasselbach family. Johannes, I know, was on a sales trip in Northern Europe.
See:
"Wurzelwerk" Goes America: 3 Vineyards, 3 Winemakers and 9 Wines
Weingut Gunderloch– The New Generation: Owner Johannes Hasselbach in Washington DC, US
Visiting Agnes and Fritz Hasselbach at their Weingut Gunderloch in Nackenheim, Rheinhessen, German
Riesling Lounge Goes Lomo, Germany
Weingut Fritz Ekkehard Huff
I started to become interested in Weingut Fritz Ekkehard Huff, when Christine Huff began to get involved in winemaking at her father’s winery. With Eva Vollmer and Mirjiam Schneider she has become to be know as the 3 Wine Amazones from Mainz. All three of them make fascinating wines. At the invitation of Stuart Pigott, the 3 Wine Amazones visited New York City last year and I remember vividly, when we met at one of the Terroir Wine Bars shortly after they had landed in New York City and they could not access the ATM machines. I helped them out and they later repaid in kind (with their wine).
When I was at the wine festival, Christine Huff poured at one of the booths.
See:
The Mainz Wine Amazones - Christine Huff, Mirjam Schneider and Eva Vollmer - in New York City, USA
International Women's Day 2012: Meeting the Wine Amazones Tina Huff, Mirjam Schneider and Eva Vollmer of Mainz, Germany
Weingut Keller
Klaus Peter Keller is the undisputed star of Rheinhessen and one of the best winemakers in Germany. His GMax ultra-premium dry Riesling sells for several hundred of US dollars. He recently bought land in the Roter Hang, but did not present his wines at the Roter Hang wine tasting.
Weingut Schätzel
Weingut Schätzel is a winery with a long tradition that only entered the limelights when Kai Schätzel took over a few years ago. Under him, the the winery has seen a major upswing. The Schätzel wines are now talked about and Kai Schätzel was there when the VDP Rheinhessen organized a village wine tasting and also invited interesting non-member wineries. The backyard of Weingut Schätzel is georgeous. I celebrated my 60th birthday there.
Kai Schaetzel, his wife and his mother poured at the first booth (Gutsweine and Ortsweine), when I was there.
See:
Celebrating Riesling and my Birthday at Weingut Schaetzel in Nierstein, Rheinhessen, Germany
A New Fixture in the Reemerging Red Slope of Nierstein - Visiting Kai Schaetzel and his Weingut Schaetzel in Nierstein, Rheinhessen, Germany
Riesling Lounge Goes Lomo, Germany
See:
German Wine and Culture Tour by ombiasy, 2013
3 Wine Tours by ombiasy Coming up in 2014: Germany-North, Germany-South and Bordeaux
New Developments in German Wine - Annette Schiller at the German Wine Society in Philadelphia, USA
Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider
Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider has been a solid Rheinhessen top producer for many years, widely available in the US. The vineyard area totals 14 hectares, of which 50% is accounted for by Riesling.
Long-time patron Albrecht Schneider is in the process of handing over to the next generation. His daughter Ursula Müller (nee Schneider) has married Steffen Müller, Weingut Müller-Schwabsburg, and the young couple is in the process of taking charge of both wineries.
I met the patron Albrecht Schneider at one of the booths and his daughter Ursula Müller and her husband, while walking up the road.
See:
Visit: Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider in Nierstein, Rheinhessen, Germany - for Upcoming German Wine Society Tasting in Washington DC, USA
Distinguished American Wine Blogger Lindsay Morriss from New England Interns at Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider in Rheinhessen
An Evening with Lindsay Morriss: The Wines of Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider and her Ideas on How to Raise the Profile of German Wines in the USA
schiller-wine: Related Postings
"Wurzelwerk" Goes America: 3 Vineyards, 3 Winemakers and 9 Wines
Weingut Gunderloch– The New Generation: Owner Johannes Hasselbach in Washington DC, US
Visiting Agnes and Fritz Hasselbach at their Weingut Gunderloch in Nackenheim, Rheinhessen, German
Celebrating Riesling and my Birthday at Weingut Schaetzel in Nierstein, Rheinhessen, Germany
A New Fixture in the Reemerging Red Slope of Nierstein - Visiting Kai Schaetzel and his Weingut Schaetzel in Nierstein, Rheinhessen, Germany
Riesling Lounge Goes Lomo, Germany
Germany at TopWine China 2014 in Beijing, China
The Mainz Wine Amazones - Christine Huff, Mirjam Schneider and Eva Vollmer - in New York City, USA
International Women's Day 2012: Meeting the Wine Amazones Tina Huff, Mirjam Schneider and Eva Vollmer of Mainz, Germany
Visit: Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider in Nierstein, Rheinhessen, Germany - for Upcoming German Wine Society Tasting in Washington DC, USA
Distinguished American Wine Blogger Lindsay Morriss from New England Interns at Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider in Rheinhessen
An Evening with Lindsay Morriss: The Wines of Weingut Georg Albrecht Schneider and her Ideas on How to Raise the Profile of German Wines in the USA
German Wine and Culture Tour by ombiasy, 2013
3 Wine Tours by ombiasy Coming up in 2014: Germany-North, Germany-South and Bordeaux
New Developments in German Wine - Annette Schiller at the German Wine Society in Philadelphia, USA