Rheingau (wine-growing region)

This article deals with the Rheingau wine region. For further meanings see Rheingau (disambiguation).

Data
Wine region :	Rheingau
State :	Hesse
Viticulture since:	at least 8th century
Surface:	3213 hectares ( 2018 )
Wine production:	276,294 hl ( 2008 )
Share of predicate wine :	approx. 35.9%
Share of quality wine :	approx. 64.1%
Website:	Rheingau Viticulture Association
map

The Rheingau is to § 3 para. 1 no. 9 Wine Law is one of 13 production areas for quality wine in Germany. It extends mainly west of the knee of the Rhine near Wiesbaden on a narrow strip between the Rhine flowing westwards and the heights of the Taunus to the north , but also includes the vineyards in Wiesbaden and on the northern bank of the Main between Flörsheim and the mouth of the Main.

The area has an area of ​​approx. 3200  hectares , on which mainly the Riesling grape variety is grown.

geography

location

In the Rhine-Main area , north of the Rhine and Main and south of the Taunus, the wine towns range from Lorchhausen in the west to Frankfurt am Main with the Lohrberger slope in the east. In addition, there is the northernmost vineyard in Hesse, the Böddiger Berg in Felsberg an der Eder . This means that the wine-growing region known as the Rheingau is larger than the Rheingau in a geographical and historical sense.

The cultivation area expanded to the left bank of the Main when a memorial vineyard was planted in the former wine town of Rüsselsheim in 1980 by Lord Mayor Storsberg with the help of the Rheingau Viticulture Association. At a historical site on the south side of the fortress , it recalls the first mention of Riesling in 1435 in the regests of Count Johann von Katzenelnbogen .

Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg

The vineyards are:

Eltville on the Rhine Frankfurt am Main Felsberg Flörsheim am Main Geisenheim Hochheim am Main

Kiedrich Lorch Oestrich-Winkel Rudesheim am Rhein Walluf Wiesbaden

form the specific growing area for quality wine Rheingau. Only Eltville, Geisenheim, Kiedrich, Lorch, Oestrich-Winkel, Rüdesheim and Walluf are in the historic Rheingau landscape. Frankfurt am Main, Flörsheim, Hochheim and Wiesbaden are to the east of it in the Main-Taunus foreland and Vordertaunus , and Felsberg is very far away from the above-mentioned municipalities in the Edertal in northern Hesse .

climate

The climate in the Rheingau is very mild. It lies in the rain shadow of the wooded heights of the Rheingau Mountains , a part of the Hohe Taunus, which face southwest to northeast . The forests inhibit the flow of cold air at night into the vineyards below. Because the Rhine runs west to Rüdesheim, there are mainly southern slopes in the Rheingau that are exposed to strong solar radiation.

The 30-year mean (1981-2010) resulted in the following values:

• Precipitation: 590 mm in 12 months, 360 mm in the growing season (Eltville measuring point)
• Hours of sunshine: 1,649 hours in 12 months, 1,299 hours in the growing season (Geisenheim measuring point)
• Average annual temperature: 10.7 ° C, 15.7 ° C during the growing season (Eltville measuring point)

Grape varieties

The most common grape variety in the Rheingau: Riesling

By far the most common grape variety in the Rheingau is Riesling ( white wine ). It takes up about 80% of the cultivation area and almost all of the top locations and is of very high quality. The wine town of Assmannshausen has a special position in the Rheingau . Pinot Noir ( red wine ) is grown here on 75 hectares , making it the largest contiguous area for Pinot Noir in Germany.

The overall distribution is as follows:

• Riesling 78.0%
• Pinot Noir 12.2%
• Other white varieties 7.6%
• Other red varieties 2.2%

The hectare yield is around 100.0 hl / ha.

Due to its acid structure and complexity, Rheingau wine needs storage time to develop its own taste properties. Depending on the vintage and quality level, this can take two or more years, even with dry wines. The trend is towards Riesling wines, which are developed with acid values ​​of 6.5 to almost 8 g / l and so taste best in the first two years after the harvest.

History of viticulture in the Rheingau

Johannisberg Castle with its vineyard

The history of viticulture on the Rhine goes back to Roman times. The "Weinkaiser" Probus (* 232, † 282) stimulated viticulture in the Palatinate. However, this seemed to be limited to the left bank of the Rhine. In the Rheingau there is no concrete evidence of this and there are only a few finds of Roman tools and implements for viticulture. Maybe this was due to the nearby Limes , which ran just a few kilometers north through the Taunus. During the Great Migration , viticulture was largely forgotten.

Only Charlemagne brought new impulses. According to legend, he looked across the Rhine from his palace in Ingelheim and noticed that the snow on Johannisberg ( Johannisberg Castle ) melted earlier than elsewhere. He therefore ordered vines to be grown here. Through him, the vineyards were considerably expanded. The first viticulture on the Johannisberg is recorded from the year 817, in Walluf even from the year 779. At first, however, the mountain was still called Bischofsberg , which probably goes back to the scholar Rabanus Maurus , who turned himself around as Archbishop of Mainz during his time 850 more often stayed in the Rheingau and also died there. The Archbishop of Mainz, Willigis , obtained feudal rights in the Rheingau through a gift from Emperor Otto II , which went down in history as a gift from Verona . In 1100 it passed to the Benedictine monks of the St. Alban Abbey near Mainz , who founded a monastery here . The abbey church was consecrated to John the Baptist in 1130 , which led to the name being changed to Johannisberg .

Around this time, viticulture in Germany reached its peak: the area under vines was around 300,000 hectares, around nine times as large as it is today. Above all, the monasteries were involved in the implementation and further development. In addition to the Benedictine monks from Johannisberg Monastery, in the Rheingau these were especially the Cistercians from Eberbach Monastery , which developed into a center of viticulture over the next few centuries. Their wine trade was mainly directed down the Rhine and flourished thanks to extensive tax exemptions from the Counts of Katzenelnbogen , who made Eberbach their home monastery. While bans on the creation of new vineyards were issued in Frankfurt and the gentlemen in Mainz reduced the yields of their vineyards in the Rheingau by ordering only French (good and high-yielding red) wine to be grown, Count Johann von Katzenelnbogen planted a new one in nearby Rüsselsheim white grape variety, Riesling. In addition to numerous vineyards from the Neckar to the Moselle, his property also included vineyards in Rüdesheim am Rhein . In his feudal letters, in addition to vineyards around the city, a vineyard in Geisenheimer Feld from 1346 is mentioned. During this period of the late Middle Ages, a heyday of the discoveries of science and art, but also the decadence of the clerical and secular princes, there was an increased need for fine drinks. While the prices of Malvasia and other alcohol-rich wines from the Mediterranean area exceeded the local wines four to five times and beer was a strong competitor for the wine, the single-variety set replaced the traditional mixed set , which resulted in first mentions of grape varieties after Riesling u. a. attested in Hattenheim in 1470 with the grape variety Klebrot ( Pinot Noir ) or 1476 in the grape variety Grobrot in Eberbach monastery. However, the term Rheingau wine also seems to have been a valued quality feature, since Count Philipp von Katzenelnbogen-Diez had his bailiff choose between Rheingau and Bergstrasse wine as a reward in 1475. The turmoil of the Reformation, in which the newly acquired knowledge also decayed, hampered an extremely fruitful development for a long time.

Discoveries and new breeds in the Rheingau

Origin of the late harvest and discovery of noble rot

Noble rot in Riesling

Until the 18th century, late reading was not common in such northern latitudes as in the Rheingau, as the winemakers feared that the grapes would rot. The time of harvest was therefore also prescribed by the congregations.

An exception was the Johannisberg Castle , which belonged to the Prince-Bishop of Fulda . Before the Johannisberg cellar master could start harvesting every year, he first had to get permission from Fulda. In 1775, however, the messenger on horseback was delayed by 14 days. There are several versions of the reasons; one says that the prince-bishop could not be reached because of a hunting trip, another that the messenger was stopped by robbers. In any case, the monks from Johannisberg Monastery had to watch their vines become rotting and begin to shrivel. After the permission was received, the harvest was finally carried out anyway, and as it turned out, to the astonishment of the cellar master, an exceptionally good wine was produced. Through this epoch-making event for viticulture, the late harvest was discovered and with it the fact that wine made from noble rotten grapes can be of special quality. This noble rot was henceforth responsible for rarities with predicate designations such as Auslese , Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese .

For the first time since the 1999 vintage, there are only wines from scientifically classified sites in the Rheingau that carry the designation First Green . Because only on climatically favorable locations and the best soils (terroir) can a wine of very special quality grow, whose unmistakable soil character is in the foreground and is reflected in the wine enjoyment.

Wine-growing map of the Nassau Rheingau

In 2011 it was discovered that the location classification in the Rheingau already has a 150-year history. The work Der Nassauische Weinbau , published in 1867 by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg , contains a viticulture map of the Nassau Rheingau , in which all the vineyards available at that time are color-coded, namely in three different shades of red, the first class vineyards, the second class vineyards and the others Vineyards.

In 1867, only thirteen layers in nine districts were counted among the first class vineyards:

District	Name of the location
Rauenthal	Gehren, Wieshell, Rothenberg
Kiedrich	Graefenberg
Erbach	Marcobrunn
Hattenheim	Steinberg
Johannisberg	Johannisberg Castle
Geisenheim	Rotheberg
Rudesheim	Secret Annex, Rottland, Berg
Assmannshausen	Hinterkirch (Roth wine)
Hochheim	Cathedral deanery

The map also shows that the amount of vineyards has changed noticeably since 1867, especially in the second half of the 20th century. In the 19th century, steep-slope viticulture continued uninterruptedly along the Rhine from Rüdesheim to Kaub. Since then, viticulture has only been able to sustain itself where, after land consolidation, the steep slopes could be accessed by roadways. On the other hand, the vineyards in the upper and middle Rheingau from Geisenheim to Niederwalluf used to alternate much more with other agricultural uses. Viticulture has expanded here since then. Further east, however, there were some wine towns where viticulture has meanwhile been given up or has declined. For example, the vineyards on Wiesbaden's Neroberg used to stretch down into the Nero Valley , and there were other vineyards in the Dambachtal . In Biebrich there was a vineyard that is only reminiscent of the Wingertstrasse with its name today . Viticulture was also practiced in Castel and Amöneburg . The former vineyards in Igstadt , Wallau and Diedenbergen were given up . The vineyards in Delkenheim used to be more extensive . And there was also much more viticulture south of Wicker along the Wickerbach in the district of Flörsheim , of which only the 0.9 hectare Rheingau single location St. Anna Chapel above the Wiesenmühle (on the map: Jungsfelder Hof ) reminds us.

New breeds

Hermann Müller: Breeder of the Müller-Thurgau grape variety named after him

The Royal Prussian Institute for Fruit Growing and Viticulture was founded in Geisenheim in 1872 , which today is called the Research Institute for Horticulture and Viticulture and has been cooperating closely with the Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences, Geisenheim department , since 1972 as part of the viticulture and oenology studies . In 2013, a new type of university emerged, the independent University of Geisenheim . Numerous discoveries in the field of viticulture were made in the research institute. In 1882 the botanist, biologist, breeder and lecturer Hermann Müller , who came from the Swiss Thurgau , bred the new grape variety named after him, Müller-Thurgau . Today, this is the second most common variety in Germany after Riesling and is considered a very successful breed worldwide because it makes little demands on soil and climate, ripens early and brings good yields. According to more recent findings, however, contrary to popular opinion, it is not a cross between Riesling and Silvaner , as the synonymous name Rivaner suggests. Rather, Müller himself was no longer sure which parent vines he had used, but Silvaner could be excluded through investigations. Based on genetic research since 1998, it turned out that it was actually a cross between the Riesling (mother) and Madeleine Royale (father) varieties .

The later head of the research institute, Heinrich Birk , also bred several grape varieties. Among the most famous are the Ehrenfelser , a cross between Riesling and Silvaner that was created in 1929 and named after Ehrenfels Castle near Rüdesheim, as well as the Rotberger from 1928, the Schönburger from 1939 and the Reichensteiner (1939), named after the Castle Reichenstein near Bingen am Rhein ).

Vineyards and wineries

General

There are different soils in the Rheingau. Slightly weathered soils can be found in the higher elevations . In the vicinity of the valley floor of the Rhine , these increasingly turn into loess , loam and clay . The taste and character of the wine are determined by the type of soil encountered, its water permeability and color. These criteria not only have an influence on the growth of the vine, but also on its heat supply (moist and light = cold, dry and dark = warm). There are four main soil groups to be found: volcanic soils, on which full, rich, fiery wines grow; Slate soils , which result in fine-bred, piquant, sparkling wines; Keuper and Muschelkalk soils that create hearty, strong wines; finally loess and clay soils that produce rich, bouquet-rich wines. In addition, steeper and higher elevations receive more sunshine, as the haze that forms near the Rhine is less strong here. There is also cooler wind higher up, which is why more and more Riesling is being grown there in order to mitigate the consequences of global warming for viticulture .

In summary, the top locations are therefore characterized by a good combination of soil, sunshine and a protected location and can in principle be found at every point in the Rheingau.

The entire cultivation area is divided into ten major locations and 119 individual locations .

Large vineyards, wine locations and individual vineyards

In the following overview, Rheingau wine locations and well-known individual locations are assigned to the major locations shown in alphabetical order.

Assmannshäuser Höllenberg, known for its Pinot Noir

The Steinberg in Hattenheim, created by the Cistercians

Vineyard on Wiesbaden's Neroberg

Large locations	Wine places	Single layers
Burgweg	Lorchhausen, Lorch , Rüdesheim , Geisenheim	Pfaffenwies; Rüdesheimer Berg Roseneck, Rottland and Schlossberg, Bischofsberg, Drachenstein, Magdalenenkreuz; Little wall, monk's path, Rothenberg
Daubhaus	Kostheim , Hochheim , Flörsheim am Main , Wicker , Massenheim	Weißerd, Domdechaney, Hell , Kirchenstück, Königin-Viktoria-Berg , Nonnberg, König-Wilhelmsberg
Deutelsberg	Hattenheim	Pfaffenberg , Steinberg , Engelmannsberg, Hassel, Heiligenberg, Mannberg , Nussbrunnen, Rheingarten, Schützenhaus, Wisselbrunnen
Harvest Brothers	Geisenheim , Johannisberg , Winkel , Mittelheim	Johannisberg Castle , Goldatzel, Hansenberg, Klaus, Vogelsang, Dachsberg, Hasensprung, Jesuit Garden, Vollrads Castle , Edelmann
Gottesthal	Oestrich	Doosberg, Klosterberg, Lenchen, Reichartshausen Palace
Heiligenstock	Kiedrich	Graefenberg, Klosterberg, Sandgrub, Wasseros
Honigberg	Erbach	Hohenrain, Honigberg, Marcobrunn , Michelmark, Rheinhell, Schlossberg, Siegelsberg, Steinmorgen
Multi-sticks	Hallgarten	Hendelberg, Jungfer, Schönhell, Würzgarten
Steep	Assmannshausen	Frankenthal, Hinterkirch, Höllenberg
Stonemakers	Eltville am Rhein , Rauenthal , Martinsthal , Walluf , Schierstein , Frauenstein , Dotzheim	Taubenberg, Sonnenberg; Baiken, Gehrn, Rothenberg, Wülfen; Rödchen, wild boar; Mountain wayside shrine, Vitusberg; Badger mountain; Herrnberg; Judenkirch

Wiesbaden's Neroberg is free of large areas . The Lohrberger slope in Frankfurt and the Böddiger Berg in Felsberg ( Schwalm-Eder district ) are also part of the Rheingau wine-growing region, although geographically they do not belong to it.

All vineyards are recorded in a vineyard roll at the Darmstadt Regional Council. The directory contains maps in which the locations are drawn. Requests for entries in the Weinbergrolle as well as requests for changes and deletions will be decided after hearing a committee of experts. The committee expresses its opinion in particular on economically sensible, but site-specific delimitation of the locations and areas. Applications for the entry, change and deletion of a location, including the determination and determination of the location names, must be submitted by the municipality in whose territory the vineyards are occupied. The viticulture department of the Darmstadt regional council, based in Eltville, is responsible for everything related to vines and wine in Hesse. The administration ranges from sovereign tasks such as the issuing of test numbers for wine, sparkling wine, sparkling wine and spirits to advising and training all Hessian winegrowers.

For the complete list of locations see the list of vineyards in the Rheingau .

Wineries and wine marketing

The vintner fountain with the stand-up collar vintner in Martinsthal

Classic form of the Rheingau Roman, as it was mainly used to serve wine in the Rheingau until the 1990s

Of the 587 wine-growing businesses in the Rheingau, 485 are self-sellers of must, barrel wine and bottled wine. 294 of these companies cultivate more than 1 hectare of vineyards. Of these, 75 wineries each have more than 10 hectares and thus together more than half of all vineyards in the Rheingau. The largest Rheingau vineyards are the Hessian State Wineries . The 102 businesses that do not market themselves are organized in wine cooperatives with 123 hectares of vineyards . In addition to the regional winegrowers 'cooperative Weinland Rheingau , these are the six local winegrowers' cooperatives in (from west to east) Lorch, Hallgarten, Erbach, Kiedrich, Rauenthal and Frauenstein. 42 of the most renowned Rheingau wineries are organized in the Association of German Prädikatsweingüter (VDP). This makes the VDP Rheingau the VDP regional association with the largest number of members.

Many of the wineries have a long tradition. The state wineries continue the work of the monks from Eberbach Monastery . The origin of the Baron von Knyphausen winery can be traced back to the year 1141 as Draiser Hof and as part of the Eberbach Monastery. Schloss Vollrads in Winkel even claims the superlative oldest winery in Germany .

In order to clearly stand out from the products of other growing areas in marketing, the Rheingau Winegrowing Association promotes the use of the Rheingau flute as a special bottle shape. A special shape of the wine glass was also created and has replaced the traditional Rheingau Roman . The new glass has a long, slender stem that takes up the angular, dark appearance of the wine bottle in terms of color and shape. The wine goblet is also tall and slim. This glass has not been produced since 2009. In contrast to the past , the edge of the goblet is far above the calibration mark , which would make it expensive, as was customary in the region's wine bars and expected by guests, to pour up to the edge of the glass and beyond (“with a mountain”).

Appreciations and quotes

• The Silvaner grape variety is also called “ Johannisberger ” , especially in Switzerland, after the Rheingau vineyards .
• The synonym for German wine in English-speaking countries is Hock , derived from the city of Hochheim am Main . An English saying goes: "A good Hock keeps away the doc!"
• A quote from Heinrich Heine reads: "Mon dieu, if I had so much faith in myself that I could move mountains, the Johannisberg would be the very mountain that I would allow me to follow everywhere."

Wine queens

There is a local wine queen in every Rheingau wine village, also in every district . Martinsthal made an exception for a few years and had the local wine represented by a Bacchus . The candidates for the freestyle of the Rheingau Wine Queen and her princesses come from among these wine majesties .

The last wine queens were

• Simone Wagner , Erbach (2001/2002), German wine princess 2002/2003
• Elena Wagner , Eltville-Rauenthal (2002/2003)
• Nadine Jäger , Rüdesheim (2003/2004), German wine princess 2004/2005
• Daniela Wendling , Oestrich-Winkel (2004/2005)
• Sabrina Klassen , Lorch (2005/2006)
• Maresa Breuer , Rüdesheim (2006/2007)
• Michaela Hans , Johannisberg (2007/2008)
• Anna-Maria Mucke , Eltville (2008/2009)
• Sarah Alt , Hallgarten (2009/2010)
• Madeleine Rossel , Eltville (2010/2011)
• Elena Benischke , Martinsthal (2011/2012)
• Sabine Wagner , Hochheim (2012/2013)
• Katharina Fladung
• Louisa Follrich
• Stephanie Kopietz , Mainz-Kostheim (2016/2017)
• Tatjana Schmidt , Walluf (2017/2018)
• Katharina Bausch , Hattenheim (2018/2019)
• Valerie Gorgus , Hattenheim (2019/2020)

The Rheingau wine queen Ulrike Neradt from Martinsthal, who was elected German wine queen as Ulrike Seyffardt in 1972 , became known throughout Germany through her work as a television presenter.

literature

• vivart Wiesbaden and Rheingau. Magazine for culture and lifestyle . Universum Verlag, 2007.
• Oliver Bock: Rhinegau from A to Z . Societäts Verlag, ISBN 3-7973-0921-X .
• Alfred Zirwes: Out and about in the Rheingau . Societäts Verlag.
• Hans Ambrosi and Wolfgang Blum: Pure Rheingau . Rhein Main publishing group.
• Wolfgang Schleicher, Josef Staab , Hans Reinhard Seeliger : Johannisberg Castle - Nine Centuries of Wine Culture on the Rhine . Woschek Verlagsgesellschaft, ISBN 3-924744-35-1 .
• Oliver Bock: Der Rheingauer Weinschmecker, edition 2008. The 40 best ostrich taverns and taverns . Societäts Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-7973-0967-8 .
• Hugh Johnson , Stuart Pigott : Touring in Wine Country: The Mosel & Rheingau . Mitchell Beazley Verlag, 1997, ISBN 1-85732-875-2 (English).

Web links

Commons : Rheingau wine-growing region  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Regional council Darmstadt: cultivation regulation in viticulture
• Rheingauer Weinbauverband e. V.
• Rheingau wine

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German Wine Institute : Statistics 2019/2020 . Mainz 2019 ( deutscheweine.de [PDF; 219 kB ]).
2. ↑ characteristics
3. ↑ German Wine Statistics 2019/2020
4. ↑ This results from the Wine Law. Since there are only the two wine-growing regions Rheingau and Hessische Bergstrasse in Hesse, all Hessian vineyards must be assigned to one of them. So z. B. reckoned the vineyards near Groß-Umstadt to the Hessian mountain road.
5. ↑ ^{a b} State law regulations on the specific growing area Rheingau , on hessenrecht.de, accessed on May 31, 2016.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Darmstadt Regional Council , Department of Viticulture Office Eltville: [Web | url = https://rp-darmstadt.hessen.de/umwelt/landwirtschaftfischereiweinbau/weinbau | text = Viticultural characteristics - Rheingau ], as of July 31, 2018.
7. ^ Josef Staab: Agriculture and viticulture of the Eberbach Cistercians . In: The Hessian Minister for Agriculture and Forests, Freundeskreis Kloster Eberbach eV (Hrsg.): Eberbach im Rheingau . Cistercian - Culture - Wine. The Hessian Minister for Agriculture and Forests, Wiesbaden / Eltville 1986, p. 105-115 .
8. ↑ Daniel Deckers 2011: The world's first site classification map was for the Rheingau in 1867 ( memento of the original from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 92 kB) 
9. ↑ dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate: The Nassau viticulture: a sketch of the climatic, soil and Culture conditions of the Rheingau . Edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg
10. ↑ List of locations, areas and smaller geographical units (Rheingau and Hessische Bergstrasse) , on hessenrecht.de, accessed on May 31, 2020
11. ↑ Membership directory ( Memento of the original from September 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the VDP Rheingau 
12. ↑ Rheingauer Weinbauverband: Ancestral gallery of the Rheingau wine queens  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.