Rheinhessen is Germany’s largest wine region both in terms of area and volume. Most of the German bulk wines that are sold in bag-in-box and funny bottles are made here. But Germany’s answer to the DRC (Domaine de la Romanée Conti), Keller riesling G-Max and a number of other top wines from world producers such as Wittmann, Thörle and Battenfeld-Spanier and Kühling-Gillot are also made here.
Producers in this episode:
- Weingut Thörle, Saulheim
- Wittmann, Westhofen
- AdamsWein, Ingelheim
This is part of a series on German wines, and above all a selection of quality German producers in five wine regions in Germany. This is the result of BKWine’s reporter Göran van den Brink’s big German tour in the summer of 2024, in six parts:
Let’s deal with the bulk wines first. It’s as far from the romantic wine dreams as you can get. Either heavily sprayed and almost dead vineyards or if it is to be organic, “no intervention farming” where the vines are allowed to grow as they wish and then harvested by machine without selection. The price that the “process manager” receives per litre is so low that maximum yield is the only goal for the vineyards, rotten, unripe or fungus-infested grapes do not matter, as long as it is possible to squeeze liquid out of them. Many of these companies are doing so badly that they are now forced to dispose of their lands.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have extremely quality-conscious family businesses that do not compromise on anything in order to make the best possible wine. Then there are also a large number of young winemakers that we will hear much more about in the future, such as AdamsWein, which shows that old, forgotten top locations can be given a new lease of life in the right hands. Because Rheinhessen is so big, it is difficult to identify a typical climate, terroir or wine style. There really is everything.
Weingut Thörle, Saulheim
The first time I came in contact with the wines from Thörle was at a blind tasting in Berlin, the Berlin Riesling Cup. There, the cup general Martin Zwick had selected about 50 of the best GG wines (Grosses Gewächs) from 2015. My favourite in the blind tasting was the Thörle riesling Hölle, which is not a GG because Thörle was not in the VDP. Second for me was Emrich Schönleber’s Halenberg, which you can read about in the Nahe part of this series. All top producers from all over Germany were represented. Since then I have bought Thörle every year and become close friends with Christoph Thörle.
Today I wonder if I’m not even more fond of their spätburgunder. Thörle Saulheim spätburgunder is usually the house red at home. Spätburgunder Hölle is at least as good as the corresponding Riesling wine.
I mentioned that Thörle is not in the VDP. To me it is a mystery. In riesling tastings I’ve held for the wine tasting club Munskänkarna, their wines have been the crowd’s favourite every time. Maybe that’s the problem, they’re too popular? In terms of quality, there is no doubt that they belong in the top tier of VDP.
Thörle is very reminiscent of Rings from the Palatinate. Two brothers, here Christoph and Johannes, who took over from their parents and turned the quality dial up to the maximum. Both have built new wineries in the middle of the vineyards where the two brothers have also built their own houses. Both are among my absolute favourites for both Riesling and Spätburgunder.
Both currently have top collections from 2022 Spätburgunder and 2023 riesling. 2022 was a very good year for Spätburgunder in Saulheim and the barrel samples we tasted were, as usual, vanishingly good, elegant and tight without being too oaky.
About 2023, Chris says: “There was a very big difference in rainfall between our different vineyards, the ones further north received much more rain than those closer to Pfalz. We had to work hard but got perfect grapes in the end, albeit in a smaller volume than usual. I am extremely satisfied, perhaps the best wines we have ever made”. After tasting it, I can’t contradict that. Normally I prefer the Hölle riesling but this year, side by side, I thought the Schlossberg was the elegant one coming in a nose length ahead.
After the tasting, we shared a bottle of Christmann riesling Idig GG 2014 that I brought with me from Gimmeldingen and a Thörle Hölle spätburgunder 2015 from their treasure range. Both magically good with a barbecue and mother Thörle’s potato salad at sunset over the vineyard.
Wittmann, Westhofen
I learn new things every time I meet Philipp Wittmann. He is a perfectionist down to the tips of his fingers and a convinced biodynamicist. As a pharmacist, I am a bit sceptical about some of Rudolf Steiner’s teachings, but after a tour with Philipp in the vineyards and cellar, the most inveterate sceptic can be convinced. When I challenged him and asked if it wasn’t just his perfectionism in the details that made the wines so good, he replied: “I don’t have all the answers, all I know is that since I converted my vineyards to biodynamic cultivation, my wines have improved”. It’s hard to argue against that. Philipp tells us that it takes 5-10 years to convert a vineyard that he has bought to biodynamic so that it maintains a high enough quality for his GG wines.
About 2023, Philipp says: “We had perfect fruit quality in 2023. Wonnegau did not have the same problems with rain during the harvest as in other parts of Rheinhessen and the rest of Germany. We have slightly lower acidity than usual, but very mineral-driven wines and without too much alcohol, 12.5%”. Then he proudly displays pictures of perfectly sun-ripened and healthy grapes on his phone.
When we try newly bottled cask samples of the 2023 riesling collection, they are initially a bit tighter than wines I have tasted at other addresses. But the minerality and elegance are there. I’ve always had a soft spot for the wines from the lime-rich peaks of Westhofen, Morstein and Brunnenhäuschen, and they won’t disappoint this year either, outstanding wines with a long life ahead of them. Westhofener Erstes Gewächs, previously just called Westhofener, has been a safe bet and a must-buy for many years.
AdamsWein, Ingelheim
At the beginning of the trip, at Johannes Leitz’s grand birthday party, I met Germany’s perhaps most influential wine writer, Stephan Reinhardt. He writes about Germany for the Robert Parker Wine Advocate and for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Between glasses of mature Bourgogne, I asked him about future stars in the German wine sky. He replied without hesitation, you must visit Simone Adams at AdamsWein in Ingelheim, she makes amazing spätburgunder wines.
All said and done, I booked a visit in Ingelheim, a boat trip away on the other side of the Rhine from Rüdesheim. Simone Adams is not only a winemaker, she has a PhD in wine, then you understand, nothing is left to chance here. Biodynamic, of course! That’s what matters if you’re going to make good wines, we all know that, since the visit to Wittmann.
Many years ago, the area in northernmost Rheinhessen had a very good reputation worldwide, but in recent decades it has been best known as bulk wine areas. Simone wants to change that now with taking over the small family property shortly before she graduated from the wine university in Geisenheim. A university which, incidentally, had as big a part in the quality revolution for German wines as the VDP.
She arrived with new ideas and extremely high quality ambitions in the small garage winery. They have about 10 hectares, which means that they and their small team can be quick-footed when needed. This is where science meets old proven methods. Gravity instead of pumping and minimal impact. “You should taste the vineyard in the bottle, not the winemaker. I want to make clean, lean and refined wines. The vineyards around Ingelheim are among the most calcareous in Germany, so the conditions are there”.
Even the entry-level wine at €15 is exceedingly elegant, complex and nuanced but not complicated. Trinkvergnügen as Johannes Leitz would have said. The single vinyeard wines are quickly rising in both quality and price level. The top wine Pares is €79 and needs time in the bottle, but oh so good. I’d probably bet on Heerweg for the moment, €25, or Auf dem Haun for €39. Both wines from western slopes on very calcareous soils. Light, mineral driven, elegant and very, very good! That man Stephan Reinhardt knows what he’s talking about. Always fun with future stars, that’s how it started with Rings and Thörle too. Here I have found a new favourite!
Epilogue
A wine tour has come to an end, the ferry back over to Rüdesheim where it all started just over a week ago and rounding off with wild boar bratwurst, sauerkraut and a beer on Drosselgasse. Many impressions and experiences. So to summarize in a few sentences:
2023 was a challenging vintage but challenging vintages don’t mean you can’t make great wines, you just have to work a little harder. It is a vintage where you have to know what you are buying, some have made their best wines ever, others not.
2022 was a great vintage for the red Spätburgunder wines across Germany.
Read the first episode in the series here: On tour in Germany.
Read the previous section here: Pfalz.
One Response
I discovered Simone Adams one year ago. Great wines! My fvorite ws the Lohpfad 2022 Chardonnay!