The III. International Riesling Symposium (IRS2017) that took place on May 29 and 30, 2017 at Kloster Eberbach, Rheingau, Germany, provided the opportunity to tour 4 Rheingau Riesling Giants: Weingut Robert Weil, Schloss Johannisberg, Schloss Vollrads and Kloster Eberbach. The pre-conference tour on Sunday, May 8, 2017, went to the former three. A tour of Kloster Eberbach and its winemaking facilities was part of the regular conference program on Monday, May 29, 2017.
III. International Riesling Symposium
On May 29 and 30, 2017, Riesling experts from around the world - top winemakers, representatives from the trade and restaurant sector, and journalists – gathered at Kloster Eberbach in the Rheingau to celebrate, discuss and taste the arguably most noble white grape in the world - Riesling.
The International Riesling Symposium in the Rheingau is part of the so-called Riesling Coalition, encompassing 3 major Rieslings events in Germany (International Riesling Symposium), in the US (Riesling Rendezvous) and in Australia (Riesling Downunder). Following this year’s International Riesling Symposium in the Rheingau, the Riesling Coalition caravan will travel to Australia next year for the 2018 Riesling Downunder, followed by the Riesling Rendezvous in Seattle, Washington State, in 2019 and the next International Riesling Symposium in the Rheingau in 2020.
4 very interesting lectures, 4 outstanding wine tastings - one in the morning and one in the afternoon of each day - a tour of the Eberbach Monestary, where the conference took place, plus the Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach and a walking wine dinner provided for two fascinating and highly entertaining days around Riesling. Additionally, participants had a chance to visit Weingut Robert Weil, Schloss Johannisberg and Schloss Vollrads on a pre-conference tour on Sunday, before the conference started.
The symposium was attended by about 250 people, including such luminaries as Stuart Pigott from Germany, Willi Bründlmayer from Austria, Helmut Dönnhoff from the Nahe, Ernst Loosen from the Mosel, Anne Trimbach from Domaine Trimbach in Alsace, Jeffrey Grosset of Grosset Wines in Australia and Andrew Hedley of Framingham Wines in New Zealand.
The conference was organized by the VDP Rheingau and Weingut Weil. The VDP is Germany’s elite winemakers association; it has about 200 members. Top winemaker Wilhelm Weil and his Deputy Director Jochen Becker-Köhn orchestrated the event.
See more: The III. International Riesling Symposium (2017) in the Rheingau, Germany
The Rheingau
It is remarkable: For its entire length of nearly 560 miles, the Rhine flows north with one exception – a 28-mile stretch where the river changes its course. Here, it flows to the west, thereby enabling both the river and the vineyards facing it to bask in the warmth of the sun all day long. This is the Rheingau, one of the medium-size German wine regions. It is a quietly beautiful region, rich in tradition. Queen Victoria's enthusiasm for Hochheim's wines contributed to their popularity in England, where they, and ultimately, Rhine wines in general, were referred to as Hock.
The third President of the USA - and notable bon viveur - Thomas Jefferson visited the Rheingau in 1788 and wrote that the wine of the "Abbaye of Johnsberg is the best made on the Rhine without comparison … That of the year 1775 is the best." He also referred to the Rheingau’s Riesling as the "small and delicate Rhysslin which grows only from Hochheim to Rudesheim". Impressed by the quality of the Rheingau Riesling wines, he bought 100 grapevines to take back to his estate in Virginia.
Although the Rheingau is one of Germany’s smaller wine-growing regions, its 3,100 ha (7,660 acres) of vineyards are vastly diverse in their geological makeup. The soil varies from stony slate at the western part near the villages of Assmannshausen and Rüdesheim to loess, sand and marl in the lower central villages of Geisenheim, Johannisberg, Winkel, Oestrich and Hattenheim. Soil reverts to stony phyllite in the higher central and eastern villages of Hallgarten, Kiedrich and Hochheim. Generally, wines from the lower slopes where the soil is heavier—sandy loam and loess—produce fuller wines, while at the higher slopes where it is more stony and slatey, the wines reflect more minerality, elegance and concentration.
The Rheingau enjoys a distinctly continental climate with cold winters and warm, but not hot, summers. The Rheingau is dominated by Riesling, accounting for 4/5 of the vineyard area. Pinot Noir accounts for 1/10 and is concentrated around Assmannshausen.
See also:
The Rheingau and its Terroirs: Tasting with Rheingau’s Elite Winemakers, Germany
Extraordinary Views of the Rheingau Vineyards - A Spectecular Helicopter Flight over the Rheingau with Rheingau Winemakers, Germany
First Visit: Weingut Robert Weil
The IRS2017 Pre-conference tour on Sunday, May 28, 2017 started at Weingut Robert Weil. We met there at noon for lunch, tasting and cellar tour.
Founded in 1875, Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich is the Rheingau’s #1 estate and one of Germany’s best. Four generations and over a century ago Dr. Robert Weil, who was a Professor of German at the Sorbonne, was forced to leave Paris because of the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871). He subsequently joined his brother August in Kiedrich in the Rheingau and established the Robert Weil winery.
Dr. Robert Weil purchased his first vineyards in Kiedrich and moved there in 1875, when he bought the estate manor from the heirs of Sir John Sutton, an English baronet. A man of vision, he built up the estate by purchasing 2 local wine estates and the vineyards of Count von Fürstenberg. Contacts throughout the world and the production of great wines brought rapid growth to the Weingut Robert Weil.
Today, Weingut Robert Weil is managed by Wilhelm Weil, who owns the winery jointly with Suntory from Japan. With 75 hectares under vine, it is one of the largest estates in the Rheingau. The historical manor house, the ultra-modern cellars and the vinothek stand side by side in a beautiful park – the same synthesis of old and new that is reflected in the estate’s philosophy of winemaking.
The vineyards are planted 100% with Riesling. The estate’s dedication to Riesling since 1875 has led numerous observers of the international wine world to regard Weingut Robert Weil as a worldwide symbol of German Riesling culture. A Riesling wine of the 1893 vintage, grown on the Gräfenberg site, made the estate famous. The imperial Habsburg court in Vienna purchased 800 bottles of this wine at a price of 16 gold Marks per bottle in 1900. The 1920 vintage of the Kiedricher Gräfenberg Trockenbeerenauslese is described as a Zeppelin wine, as it was served on board the LZ 127 „Graf Zeppelin” dirigible on its circumnavigation of the world in 1929. Robert Weil’s top botrytis wines are sold today at extremely high prices - they are among the most expensive in the world. The current world record (in 2006) is held by a 1999 Weil Trockenbeerenauslese, at DM 5.000 (EUR 2500).
Weingut Robert Weil’s top vineyards all belong to the group of the highlying sites of the Rheingau: Kiedricher Klosterberg, Kiedricher Turmberg and Kiedricher Gräfenberg. Inclination (up to 60 %), exposure (southwest) and the ability of the barren stony soils to absorb heat are the factors that make for three perfect Riesling sites. These conditions, as well as ideal circulation, enable the grapes to remain on the vine for a long time, ripening well into November.
See also:
Robert Weil Goes Burgundy - A New Line of Wines: Weinhaus Robert Weil Junior, Chardonnay and Pinot Unique
Christian G.E. Schiller's Review of the Book: Ralf Frenzel (ed.) - Riesling, Robert Weil. Tre Torri, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2013, in: Journal of Wine Economics, Volume 9, 2014, No. 1, Cambridge University Press
Steffen Christmann (Weingut A. Christmann) and Wilhelm Weil (Weingut Robert Weil) Presented the New Wine Classification of the VDP, Germany
Weingut Robert Weil Goes Facebook, Germany
Deputy Managing Director Jochen Becker-Köhn and Export Director Nicolas Pfaff of Weingut Robert Weil in Singapore
Grosse Weine – Unser Leben / Grand Wines – Our Lives: Wilhelm Weil, Jochen Becker-Köhn, Skat and the Wines of Weingut Robert Weil, Germany
Weingut Robert Weil, Kiedrich, Rheingau, Germany: Super Sommerfest/Summer Party 2014
Kiedrich: Visit of the Basilica of Saint Valentine and of Weingut Robert Weil - Germany-North Wine Tour by ombiasy (2014)
From Weingut Robert Weil to Schloss Johannisberg
Second Visit: Schloss Johannisberg
From Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich we drove by bus to Schloss Johannisberg. There, we were received by the new Managing Director of Schloss Johannisberg, Stefan Doktor. We toured the historic cellar of Schloss Johannisberg and walked around the castle through the vineyard.
Wine making in the Schloss Johannisberg vineyards started long before the castle was build, during the reign of Charlemagne. The hill became known as Johannisberg (John's mountain) in the 1100s, when a Romanesque basilica in honor of John the Baptist was built on the hill. The Chateau that we see today was built in the 1700s by the Prince-Abbot of Fulda. In 1720 he planted Riesling vines, making it the oldest Riesling vineyard in the world.
For many centuries the estate was owned by the Prince-Abbot of Fulda, but changed hands several times during the Napoleonic wars and subsequent secularization. In 1816, Austrian Emperor Francis II, gave the estate to his Foreign Minister, Prince von Metternich, as a thank you for his successful negotiations in the reorganization of Europe during the “Congress of Vienna”. The last resident of the Metternich family at Schloss Johannisberg, Tatjana Princess von Metternich was a patron of the arts in the Rheingau and beyond and revived the castle to its former glory after the destructions during World War II. After her death in 2006, the Oetker family (yes, that's the one that produces baking helpers and puddings) bought the estate.
The vineyard Schloss Johannisberg is also a single vineyard designation (Einzellage) in its own right. Like the Steinberg, it is one of a handful historic German vineyards which do not have to display a village name on the label. Thus, the vineyard designation on the label is Schloß Johannisberger. There are currently about 35 hectares of vineyard.
The Oetker family also owns the renowned Weingut G.H. von Mumm, also in Johannisberg. Weingut G.H. von Mumm is jointly managed with Weingut Schloss Johannisberg by Christian Witte and his team.
Weingut Schloss Johannisberg has been making wine for over 900 years. The winery is most noted for its claim to have "discovered" the Spätlese wine, late harvest wine. (This, however, is contested by the Hungarians; they claim that the late harvest was discovered in the Tokaji region.)
Long before printed labels were common practice, Schloss Johannisberg had its own system of distinguishing among its bottlings through the use of colored seals. Introduced by Fürst von Metternich in 1820 and in use to this day, the quality of a wine can be identified according to color.
Gelblack (yellow seal): QbA
Rotlack (red seal): Kabinett
Grünlack (green seal): Spätlese
Silberlack (silver seal): Großes Gewächs
Rosalack (pink seal): Auslese
Rosa-Goldlack (pink-gold seal): Beerenauslese
Goldlack (gold seal): Trockenbeerenauslese
Blaulack (blue seal): Eiswein
See also:
Tour and Tasting at Schloss Johannisberg, Rheingau, with Christian Witte, Domaine Director – Germany-North Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015), 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
VDP Vineyard Illuminations at Johannisberg Castle
From Johannisberg to Vollrads
Third Visit: Schloss Vollrads
From Schloss Johannisberg we walked through the vineyards over to Schloss Vollrads. It took us about 30 minutes. At Schloss Vollrads, Managing Director Rowald Hepp and Deputy Managing Director Christine Müller were our hosts. They showed us around at Schloss Vollrads, including in areas that are only opened to the public at special occasions, 2 or 3 times per year. Following the tour, we had dinner at Schloss Vollrads.
Schloss Vollrads is a historical monument and one of the art-historical highlights of the Rheingau region. It is also one of the oldest wine estates in the world; wine sales have been documented as early as 1211.
The impressive tower house, built in 1330, was constructed on the foundation of a roman defense tower.
Schloss Vollrads was owned since 983 until 1218 by the Archbishop of Mainz and since then until 1997 by the family of Greiffenclau. In 1997 – in view of unsurmountable debts - Count Erwein Matuschka-Greiffenclau committed suicide and since then the Nassauische Bank, a government-owned bank, is the owner of Schloss Vollrads.
Schloss Vollrads is a rather large estate by German standards, with 60 hectares of vineyard land, and produces exclusively Riesling wines. Some of the vineyards were already in the possession of the Greiffenclau family in 1300.
Today, Rowald Hepp is the Managing Director of Schloss Vollrads and Christine Müller his Deputy.
Rowald Hepp: We believe that an outstanding Riesling makes you happy. That’s why we only grow Riesling grapes – deliberately, with special care, and with love. We cherish our vines. We pick our grapes very carefully by hand – and that several times per season – in order to collect them at precisely the right degree of ripeness. We make use of our knowledge and a tradition of over 800 years of viticulture, so that our grapes can become the very special Riesling that will make you happy. On some 80 hectares of vineyards we make unique and authentic wines. Nature is on our side as all vineyards around Schloss Vollrads descend down to the Rhine in a southerly direction. Our capital does not only rest in vines and soil alone: Particularly valuable are our staff with their years of experience, because a vineyard is like a living being and wants to be treated accordingly. Schloss Vollrads and its staff will do everything they can to make wine an experience for you. Here, art, culture, cuisine and wine cellar complement each other. Please visit us and find out more.
The distinctive flavour of the Schloss Vollrads Riesling wines can be attributed to our unique terroir: In the Rheingau, six different geological formations form layers of one structure which provides the vine roots with a variety of minerals. We make ten to fifteen different wines from our Riesling grapes per year, from estate wines to Kabinett and Edition to Spätlese (late harvest) and Auslese (special selection). If the conditions are right, we also produce wines of special quality such as Trockenbeerenauslese (dry berry selection) or ice wine. Even in our simple estate wines we wish to demonstrate class and offer a quality wine which will succeed in making those love wine who hitherto have only drunk wine occasionally.
Incidentally, the tradition of the Kabinett wines was established at Schloss Vollrads in 1716: Particularly good wines of a vintage were stored in the “Cabinet” cellars. Even today, internationally renowned Riesling wines mature to completion in the winery.
See also:
The Role of Government - Government Owned Wineries in Germany
Fourth Visit: Kloster Eberbach and Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach
A tour of Kloster Eberbach and its winemaking facilities was part of the regular conference program in the afternoon on Monday, May 29, 2017. My group started the visit with a tour of Kloster Eberbach. From there, a bus took us to the near-by new winery and the famous Steinberg vineyard.
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.
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 hectares 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.
Arguably the highlight of the III. International Riesling Symposium, Dieter Greiner (CEO Weingut Kloster Eberbach) and Dr. Daniel Deckers (Editor FAZ, Frankfurt) led an exceptional tasting of wines from the Steinberg: Dry Rieslings from 1943, 1953, 1964, 2007, 2009, 2015 as well as the 1959 Steinberg vintage (Cabinet, Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Edelbeerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese)
See also:
Lunch and Tour: Kloster Eberbach in the Rheingau – Germany-North Tour 2016 by ombiasy WineTours
Wine and Music at Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau - Germany-North Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015)
A Riesling Feast in an Historic Setting: Riesling Gala 2016 at Kloster Eberbach in the Rheingau, Germany
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Weingut Robert Weil, Kiedrich, Rheingau, Germany: Super Sommerfest/Summer Party 2014
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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
VDP Vineyard Illuminations at Johannisberg Castle
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