Wset Rheingau

Front 1

Geisenheim

Back 1

viticultural research institute named after the small town in the Rheingau region of Germany where it is sited

Front 2

Protected by?

Back 2

• Protected by the Taunus Mountains

Front 3

Area?

Back 3

• 3600ha over 90% which lie in the right bank of the Rhine.78% reisling and 13% Spatburgunder.

Front 4

Soils

Back 4

• Soils of slate, loess and loam on slopes and sandy loam in the valley.

Front 5

Climate?

Back 5

• the region has a favoured mesoclimate. With its southern aspect, it is marginally warmer than much of Rheinhessen to the south, and its annual rainfall of a little over 600 m/23 in means that there is an adequate supply of water for the riesling vine to ripen its grapes long into the autumn. The vines of today can tolerate extremes of weather better than those of the past, as years of research have much improved their quality and strength.

Front 6

Yields?

Back 6

• Most good Rheingau estate bottlers aim for 70 to 80 hl/ha (4–4.5 tons/acre)—low for Germany.

Front 7

Well thought of?

Back 7

• No German wines have ever achieved higher international standing (or prices) than did the Rieslings of the Rheingau in the late 19th century, and even in the mid 20th century prices were much higher than those of many of Bordeaux's classed growths

Front 8

What is Closter Eberbach?

Back 8

• The state of Hesse, with 147 ha/363 acres of vineyard in various parts of the region, uses the 12th-century Cistercian monastery kloster eberbach for numerous promotional functions, including courses, conferences, and a famous auction held each year.

Front 9

Does it face competition?

Back 9

• The Rheingau has also had stiff competition within Germany from the increasingly fashionable and predominantly dry wines of the dynamic, warmer Baden and Pfalz regions.

Front 10

Do you find Pinot here?

Back 10

• Pockets of high-quality Spätburgunder—which accounts for 13 per cent of total vineyard area—abound in the Rheingau

Front 11

Where do you find Pinot?

Back 11

most important sites for Pinot Noir are at opposite ends of the region: on the calcareous soils of Hochheim on the Main, and at Assmannshausen.

Front 12

How much of the wine is Trocken?

Back 12

• Almost 60 per cent of Rheingau wine today is bottled trocken, and a further 27 per cent halbtrocken.

Front 13

Where does Pint dominate?

Back 13

• at Assmannshausen, Pinot Noir dominates proceedings, above all in the south-facing Höllenberg.

Front 14

Rudesheim?

Back 14

• Upstream of Rüdesheim, the Rhine runs east–west, exposing on the so-called Rüdesheimer Berg the first of the Rheingau's famous progression of south-facing slopes.

Front 15

Geisenheim vineyards.

Back 15

• Geisenheim (Kläuserweg, Rothenberg),

Front 16

Johannisberg vineyards.

Back 16

• Johannisberg (Hölle, Schloss Johannisberg)

Front 17

Winkel vineyards

Back 17

• Winkel (Jesuitengarten, Schloss Vollrads),

Front 18

Oestrich vineyards

Back 18

• Oestrich (Doosberg, Lenchen)

Front 19

Best Vineyards?

Back 19

• Hattenheim (Pfaffenberg, Nussbrunnen, Wisselbrunnen), and Erbach (Marcobrünn, Siegelsberg, Schlossberg). Surpasses all others in the area.

Front 20

Hochheim?

Back 20

• On gentle slopes down to the river Main, Hochheim produces more corpulent Rieslings quite distinct from those grown elsewhere in the Rheingau yet equally complex.
•