Some of the events of the Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014) focused exclusively on wine. Others focused on other aspects, notably art, history and food. The visit of the Eberbach Abbey was one of those, where wine was important, but art and history were at the center.
The visit at Kloster Eberbach comprised 3 elements: Lunch at the Tavern of Kloster Eberbach, a guided tour of the abbey and a wine tasting.
Following the visit of Kloster Eberbach, we walked about a mile to the famous Steinberg vineyard, where we took a quick look at the new winery of the Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach and sat down in the Steinberg vineyard with many other Sunday visitors from the Greater Frankfurt am Main area and had a couple of glasses of wine from the Steinberg vineyard. I will report in a separate posting about the visit of the Steinberg vineyard.
Kloster Eberbach
The Eberbach Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery, founded in 1136 by Bernard of Clairvaux as the first Cistercian monastery on the eastern bank of the Rhine river.
Today, the Eberbach Abbey is a large State-owned winery (the State of Hessen is its proprietor) and one of the largest wineries in Germany. Its Romanesque and Gothic buildings are impressive.
Most of the vineyard holdings of the Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach date back to the 12th centuries, when Cistercian monks founded the Eberbach Abbey. The vineyards of Eberbach Abbey were, at 300 hectares, the largest in medieval Europe.
The Abbey, including its vineyards, was secularised under Napoleon in 1803. The new owner was the Duke of Nassau. Then, from 1866, Prussia became the owner of the Abbey and its vineyards. Finally, in 1945 after World War II, the Federal State of Hessen took it over.
We got an in-depth tour of the Abbey, including the visit of the old monk’s dormitory where every year the famous auction of premium German wines takes place. A very special treat was a peek into the treasure chamber, where century old wine bottles are still stored and where the movie “The Name of the Rose” with Sean Connery was filmed in 1986.
Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach
The Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach serves as an umbrella organization for seven individual wine estates, including 3 wine producing facilities and cellars:
The Bensheim Estate is the only one located in the Hessische Bergstraße wine-growing region. Grand Duke of Hessen-Darmstadt founded this Estate in 1904, the vineyard holdings total 38 hectares. The main grape variety planted is Riesling (25 ha), as well as Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.
The red wine Estate Assmannshausen at the western edge of the Rheingau has a vineyard area of 27 hectares in the Höllenberg site, of which 25 hectares are planted with Pinot Noir. These two Estates do their own bottling, and market the wines under their own names.
The Hattenheim Estate (50 ha vineyard area in the Engelmannsberg, Siegelsberg and Marcobrunn sites).
The Hochheim Estate.
The Rauenthal Estate (48 ha in the Baiken and Wülfen sites).
The Rüdesheim Estate (23 ha in the Berg Roseneck, Berg Rottland and Berg Schlossberg sites).
The Steinberg (32 ha, a monopole holding).
The total vineyard area of the 7 estates comes to more than 200 hectares, of which 85% are planted with Riesling, 10% with Pinot Noir and 5% with other varieties.
A few years ago, the Hessische Staatsweingüter built a new winemaking facility and celler just outside the wall of Steinberg, the Steinbergkeller. The Steinbergkeller – a state of the art winery - was a very controversial project. It was constructed for several 100 million Euro.
Next Stop: Steinberg Vineyard
Following the visit of Kloster Eberbach, we walked about a mile to the famous Steinberg vineyard, where we took a quick look at the new winery of the Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach and sat down in the Steinberg vineyard with many other Sunday visitors from the Greater Frankfurt am Main area and had a couple of glasses of wine from the Steinberg vineyard.
schiller-wine: Related Postings
4 Wine Tours by ombiasy coming up in 2015: Germany-East, Germany-South. Germany-Nord and Bordeaux
Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy, 2014
Germany-South Wine Tour by ombiasy, 2014
Weingut Pawis (Saale Unstrut): Estate Tour and Wine Tasting with Kerstin Pawis– Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
Weingut Kloster Pforta: Vineyard Tour, Cellar Tour and Tasting with Managing Director Christian Kloss – Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
Winzerhof Gussek in the Saale Unstrut Region: Cellar Tour, Vineyard Tour and Tasting with Owner and Winemaker André Gussek – Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
Tour and Tasting at the Historic Weingut Juliusspital in Würzburg, Franken– Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
Weingut Bickel-Stumpf in Franken: Vineyard Walk and Wine Tasting with Reimund Stumpf, Matthias Stumpf and Melanie Stumpf-Kröger - Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
Kiedrich: Visit of the Basilica of Saint Valentine and of Weingut Robert Weil - Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
schiller-wine: Related Postings (Kloster Eberbach)
Riesling Gala 2014 at Kloster Eberbach in the Rheingau, Germany
Rheingau Riesling Gala 2013 at Kloster Eberbach, Germany
A Tour through the Rheingau (Germany) - Visit of 3 Prestigious, Historic Rheingau Wineries: Weingut Robert Weil, Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach and Schloss Johannisberg (IRS 2014), Germany
In the Steinberg, Eberbach Abbey, Rheingau, Germany
Steinberger Riesling 1893 from Hattenheim in the Rheingau, Germany to San Francisco in California, USA