Johannisberg Castle (Rheingau)

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Johannisberg Castle and its vineyard photographed from the south
Johannisberg Castle from 1832 on an engraving after Tombleson

With Schloss Johannisberg a palace complex, a traditional is winery and the corresponding vineyard in the district of Geisenheim in the Rheingau referred.

The entire complex goes back to a monastery winery, the history of which goes back to the 8th century. The palace hall and basilica are now the venues for the Rheingau Music Festival .

The wine-growing domain belonging to the VDP is the sole owner of the 50 hectare site, which is one of the best in the Rheingau. Only Riesling is grown here. From an administrative point of view, Schloss Johannisberg is a separate district of Geisenheim, which, with the Wine Law of 1971, gave the winery the right to use the location name on the label without a place name. In 2000, Schloss Johannisberg was finally registered as a single location in the register of the Hessian wine-growing authority.

Location, soil and climate

Aerial photograph (2006)

The vineyard location "Schloss Johannisberg" is very homogeneous in terms of its extent. The vineyard represents a quartzite hill in front of the Taunus and faces exactly south. For Rheingau conditions, it is very steep. His foot is at 114  m above sea level. NHN , the top terrace at 181.8 meters. The soil consists of medium to deep loess and loess loam, which mixes with iron oxide- containing slate and the quartzite of the subsoil. The drainage is generally very good, but in dry summers the upper part suffers from a lack of water.

In the work "Der Nassauische Weinbau" published by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg in 1867, Johannisberg Castle is classified as one of 13 top locations in Class I after the first comprehensive classification of the Rheingau vineyards.

“Mon Dieu! if only I had so much faith in me that I could move mountains - the Johannisberg would be the very mountain that I could follow me everywhere. "

The Johannisberg lies exactly on the 50th parallel , a stele in the vineyard marks its exact course. The climate is tempered by the up to one kilometer wide Rhine river . In winter, the temperature rarely falls below freezing point, while extreme heat is rare in summer. In autumn, the proximity of the stream increases the humidity, which promotes the formation of noble rot .

The course of the weather has been recorded in Schloss Johannisberg for over 100 years. The mean of the years 1961–1990 fell 548 mm of precipitation, with the mean values ​​in the months of May to August being the highest at 55–60 mm. In the reading months the amount is only 40–42 mm. The average sunshine duration is almost 1600 hours per year.

There have been complete records of the beginning of the harvest and harvest quality since 1784. Global warming is also reflected in these directories : if the mean reading began on November 2nd in the 1890s, it shifted to October 16th until the 1950s. In the 1990s, the harvest began on October 9th.

The wine

Cultivation and vinification

Of the 50 hectares of vineyards, 45 hectares are regularly in production. They are planted exclusively with Riesling. The planting density is approx. 5000 vines per hectare. The average yield over the last 20 years is 67 hl / ha, but the fluctuations are quite large. Typically, the yields are higher in good vintages when there is no impairment from hail or rot. On average, 60% quality wine and 40% quality wine with predicate are produced. Schloss Johannisberg sets the standards higher than the wine law: for the respective predicate levels, five degrees Öchsle more than prescribed are required.

Due to its size, the vineyard is not completely homogeneous. The grapes for cabinet wine grow in the uppermost part of the vineyard, and those for “simple” quality wine in the lower part. Some parcels are particularly suitable for achieving the highest ratings: the western Schlossberg produces noble sweet wines up to the Trockenbeerenauslese , while the upper eastern mountain with its low humidity is predestined for the production of ice wines .

The grape harvest, which usually begins in the first half of October, is done entirely by hand. The grapes are gently pressed. The must remains in the fermentation tank at 20 ° C for three days before alcoholic fermentation begins . It takes place both in stainless steel tanks at temperatures around 18 ° C and in large wooden barrels in the 900-year-old castle cellar.

Barrel in the historic Johannisberg wine cellar

Quality levels

Fürst von Metternich had the wine bottles sealed for the first time with sealing wax , the color of which provided information about the quality level. Today, different colored capsules are used for the Schloss Johannisberg wine, depending on the grade. In detail these are:

In the work "Der Nassauische Weinbau" published by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg in 1867 with the first classification of vineyards in the Rheingau, it is classified as a first class vineyard.

Wine library in the Johannisberg wine cellar (Rheingau)

Character and vintages

With the modernized vinification , which promotes the development of complex fruit aromas, the wine from Schloss Johannisberg has regained its place in the top group of the Rheingau. It is considered by connoisseurs to be the epitome of Rheingau Riesling. Multi-layered fruit and spice combine with elegance and delicacy. At the same time, it is extremely sustainable and durable. Kabinette and Spätlese can develop in the cellar for several decades, especially if they are semi-dry or with a distinct residual sweetness. Beerenauslese is sometimes still a pleasure after 50 or 100 years (see quote).

Harvest quantities and quality at Johannisberg Castle have been fully documented since 1700. The collection of the castle's wine treasure chamber, known as Bibliotheca subterranea , dates back well into the 19th century, the oldest bottle dates from 1748. The most recent major vintages can be 1999, 2002, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. All of these vintages have produced internationally excellent wines.

history

1200 years of viticulture history

Beginnings and monastery winery

Johannisberg monastery church with baroque lattice to the courtyard and large cedar

According to legend, the layout of the vineyard can be traced back to Charlemagne , who is said to have observed from his palace in Ingelheim that the snow on the Johannisberg was the first to melt. In 772 a donation from Geisenheim lands to the Fulda Abbey was notarized. In 817 the monks exchanged the grounds with Ludwig the Pious for land in the Wetterau . The contract explicitly mentions the location of the parcel on the Elsterbach , which flows at the foot of the Johannisberg. In 983, Emperor Otto II granted the Mainz bishops sovereignty over the western part of the Rheingau, but the name "Bischofsberg" had already been established for the vineyard.

Around 1100 the Archbishop of Mainz, Ruthard, gave it to the Mainz Benedictine monastery of Sankt Alban , which was supposed to set up a new monastic community there. The new monastery was dedicated to St. John. The foundation and naming were associated with the Mainz pogrom (Jewish Gezerot Tatnu ) of May 27, 1096 (commemoration day of Pope John I ) and therefore understood as an atonement of the bishop and his brother-in-law Rheingraf Richolf, also from a Jewish point of view. In the middle of the 12th century the name "Sankt Johannisberg" appeared for the first time for the property. Until 1130 Johannisberg was a priory of the St. Alban Monastery. Afterwards it was raised to an independent monastery by Adalbert von Saarbrücken . Around this time the three-aisled pillar basilica with nine bays and a protruding transept, of which only the foundations have survived, was built. At times the Johannisberg monastery owned a priory, from which the Eberbach monastery later emerged. Johannisberg Monastery was a double monastery in the early days , with an attached women's hermitage. The Sankt-Georgsklause at the foot of the mountain, first mentioned around 1170 , which existed until 1452, became the namesake of today's vineyard "Johannisberger Klaus".

Fall and end of the monastery

After an initial period of prosperity, a gradual decline set in. In 1451, Cardinal Nikolaus von Kues complained that “the monastery had collapsed internally and externally” “as a result of the disorderly way of life of the monks”. But they are willing to reform on the condition that the hermitage and their goods are awarded to them to secure their livelihood. This happened, and in 1457 the convention joined the reform-oriented Bursfeld congregation . A new period of prosperity began. However, the Peasants' War of 1524/25 brought the beginning of the end, and the raid of Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach in the Margravial War of 1552 completely ruined the monastery. When the last abbot died in 1563, the Archbishop of Mainz Daniel Brendel von Homburg ordered the dissolution of the monastery; henceforth the goods were subject to secular administration. In 1635 the then Archbishop of Mainz, Anselm Kasimir, was forced to pledge the Johannisberg to cover the costs of the Swedish occupation of the Rheingau during the Thirty Years' War . The monastery church was destroyed for the first time in 1634. The Reichspfennigmeister Hubert von Bleymann received the entire income from the wine as interest on the loan he had granted for 20,000 Reichstaler . The debt was increased by 10,000 thalers in 1641, and the contract later passed to the descendants of the creditor, Georg von Gise and his son Johann Heinrich. However, they apparently lost interest in the Johannisberg at the beginning of the 18th century.

The Fulda time and the development of the late harvest

In 1716 the Archbishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn sold the Johannisberg to the Fulda prince abbot Konstantin von Buttlar , who raised a total of 75,392 guilders for the acquisition . He had the property expanded into his summer residence for a further 148,000 guilders. The Romanesque church was rebuilt and the interior was redesigned in Baroque style according to plans by Johann Dientzenhofer .

Leading master builders from Mainz - Andrea Gallasini and Johann Kaspar Herwarthel - erected a three-wing baroque palace building, the courtyard of which is to the north. The two outer pavilions and the courtyard gate of this building still exist unchanged. The press house was given a central place within the palace complex. In 1721 the imposing, 260 m long vaulted cellar was completed. Considerable sums were also invested in the vineyards. The area under vines grew from 14.3 to 18.9 hectares, half of which was newly planted. Almost exclusively Riesling was planted, only a small portion remained for the Orléansrebe - which at that time still dominated the Rüdesheimer Berg , for example - and Muscatel . For this reason, Schloss Johannisberg still calls itself the first Riesling winery in the world. The planting density was considerably higher then than it is today, because 293,950 vines were planted in 1720 and 1721 alone, which suggests at least 30,000 vines per hectare. In the second half of the 18th century, large quantities of Johannisberger were already bottled - usually after ten years of barrel storage. The bottling took place in the cellar of the orangery of the Fulda city palace . This cellar, in which the best Johannisberg wines were stored, was subject to the "secret cabinet", the private box of the prince abbot or prince-bishop (from 1752).

According to today's standards, these "Cabinet" wines are Auslese and Beerenauslese wines that have been systematically produced by the Johannisberg Domain since the last quarter of the 18th century. The beginning of this tradition can be found with great certainty in 1775. The courier, who had to bring a sample of Johannisberger grapes to Fulda every year in order to obtain permission to read, was eight days late. In the meantime the grapes had suffered from noble rot; nevertheless one made a wine from it. On April 10, 1776, the manager Johann Michael Engert stated that he had never experienced such excellent taste. From this point on, the harvest has always been postponed as far as possible. The first as a "Cabinet" described -Wine read there was at Schloss Johannisberg probably in 1779; the first ice wine in 1858.

A monument in the courtyard of the Johannisberg Castle has immortalized the “ Spätlesereiter ”. But these are not the first wines made from noble rotten grapes. Such are already documented from the 16th century, and in 1757 a “delicate wine” was also pressed from noble rotten grapes at Johannisberg Castle.

Johannisberg Castle as the plaything of European politics

In the coalition wars, Johannisberg Castle suffered heavily from attacks and confiscations by French troops and subsequently became a pawn in European politics. The secularization in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 did not award Johannisberg Palace to Prince Friedrich Wilhelm von Nassau-Weilburg , who had received the Rheingau, but to the House of Nassau-Orange . Prince Wilhelm V passed the estate on to his son, Hereditary Prince Wilhelm-Friedrich .

Since the Orange refused to join the Rhine Confederation , they were expropriated by Napoléon in 1806 . However, the attempt by the Duke of Nassau to take possession of Johannisberg Castle failed. In 1807 Napoléon gave it to his Marshal François-Christophe Kellermann , the victor of Valmy , as a reward for his military services. When the good year 1807 was followed by several bad years, the manager at the time, Adelaide Marco, felt compelled to sell the 1811er am Stock to the Frankfurt banker Peter Arnold Mumm . The so-called “ comet year ” was the best of the entire century. Mumm, who had only spent 32,000 guilders for this, redeemed over 150,000 guilders and was able to set up his own winery in Johannisberg with the profit.

In 1814 the domain was confiscated from the allies and placed under joint management. In the Congress of Vienna , the Rheingau fell to the Duchy of Nassau , but the Johannisberg was excluded. An agreement of June 13, 1815 made it subject to the sovereignty of Austria. It was foreseeable, however, that the Austrian crown would not manage the estate itself. Numerous well-deserved statesmen therefore hoped for the Johannisberg, such as the Prussian Chief of Staff Gneisenau , the General Field Marshal von Blücher and the Minister Reich Freiherr vom Stein , whom the Russian Tsar Alexander I favored.

Donation to Metternich

In this situation, the Austrian Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich took action . His family's roots were on the Rhine ( Metternich House in Koblenz), but due to financial difficulties he had the properties in Geisenheim and Rüdesheim auctioned off in 1811/12 . He could Emperor Francis I convince him to Johannisberg to an annual tax of one-tenth of the income of more than twelve years old vineyards to the House in 1816 Habsburg to leave. This tithe survived all political upheavals to this day. He has been paid for in cash since 1945, before the barrels were drawn. Karl Habsburg-Lothringen is currently entitled to tithe . Originally, the estate was supposed to revert to the Habsburgs as entails when the line Metternich-Winneburg died out. This regulation fell victim to the abolition of noble privileges in 1920. Austria did not renounce its political sovereignty claims to the Johannisberg until 1851, which resulted in heavy back taxes to the Nassau state treasury. Klemens von Metternich not only invested in viticulture. Under the direction of the Grand Ducal Hessian court architect Georg Moller , the main building of the palace building was redesigned in a classical style. Metternich also had an English-style park laid out. For this, the Frankfurt city gardener Sebastian Rinz could be won over, later planning was done by the creator of the Frankfurt palm garden , Heinrich Siesmayer .

The Johannisberg became in the first half of the 19th century a destination of the emerging Rhine tourism ; the visitors drank the famous wine straight away on the palace terrace. The bar is still located here today, surrounded by vineyards, fig trellis and chestnut avenue.

Despite all political changes of ownership, the wine-growing domain survived the Napoleonic era relatively unscathed. This is mainly thanks to the manager at the time, the Benedictine Father Karl Arnd, who ran the estate from 1792 to 1824. He relied on Riesling as a quality variety, late harvest and bottling for high-quality lots. From 1818 the best wines were sold again as "cabinet wines". In contrast to the usual practice of auctioning at the time, Schloss Johannisberger was mainly sold directly to retailers in barrels or bottles. The different qualities of the bottled wines were marked by different colored sealing wax. In 1830 Metternich also ordered that all labels had to be signed by the manager and cellar master. Johannisberger Castle was sold after several years of barrel storage. This suggests that the wine must always have undergone malolactic fermentation . It should therefore have been relatively round and, due to the late harvest, also full-bodied. It got its famous flavor from barrel aging. It had little residual sweetness - apart from the Beerenauslese special vintages that were called “Ausbruch” back then (as it is today in Austria ). In 1858, the first ice wine from this winery was pressed from frozen grapes at Johannisberg Castle. The next ice wines came in 1890 and then again in 1950.

Wine label 1949

Wine lists from the time before the First World War show that Johannisberger Castle was one of the most expensive and sought-after plants in Europe at the time. Its price was higher than that of the largest Bordeaux . In 1897 the Metternich domain was one of the founders of the "Association of Rheingau Winery Owners", which in 1910 was merged into the "Association of German Natural Wine Auctioneers". Today's Association of German Predicate and Quality Wineries (VDP) emerged from this association . In 1915 phylloxera was first discovered in the Johannisberg vineyards , which required the new vineyards to be planted on resistant rootstock . In 1935, Johannisberg Castle was officially dissolved as a family estate. Christian Josef Labonte , later also a member of the Hessian state parliament, steered the estate as a domain councilor from 1924 to 1956 through the difficult times of National Socialism. Since he also supplied Jewish wine merchants, he was considered "politically unreliable".

On August 13, 1942, the church and palace were destroyed by an emergency dropping of British aerial bombs after a heavy attack on Mainz . The reconstruction of the castle lasted until 1964. The owner Paul Alfons Prince von Metternich-Winneburg (1917–1992) took up residence at Johannisberg Castle after the loss of his Bohemian possessions. His widow Tatiana lived in the castle until her death in 2006. It is still not open to the public to this day, only accessible during events. Alfons Prince von Metternich-Winneburg was from 1976 until his death in 1992 the first large Bailli in Germany of the ecumenically oriented Order of Lazarus and his widow Tatiana from 1993 until her death the second large Bailli; from this it emerged that the Order of Lazarus had its German seat at Johannisberg Castle until 2006.

basilica

Rudolf Schwarz directed the reconstruction of the church in the authentic, strict Romanesque forms in the style of the 12th century . He exposed the buried pillar bases, replaced the side apses in the transept, added a crossing tower and a baptistery on the north aisle. The floor plan shows features of the Carolingian mother monastery, Stift St. Alban, near Mainz . In this reconstructed interior there are only a few pieces of the historical furnishings (sandstone lectern and sculptures from the 15th / 16th centuries).

The following photo gallery shows the interior and furnishings of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Johannisberg Castle:

The church served as a parish church for Johannisberg . It is also a space for spiritual concerts by local groups and concerts of the Rheingau Music Festival . In 1999, combined choirs from Geisenheim and Idstein performed Giacomo Puccini's Messa di Gloria and in 2001 Rutter's Requiem and Benjamin Britten's The Company of Heaven for speakers, soloists, choir and orchestra (1937). In 2009 the Neue Rheingauer Kantorei sang Haydn's The Creation with the soloists Elisabeth Scholl , Daniel Sans and Andreas Pruys .

Concert hall for the Rheingau Music Festival

The east wing of the palace was rebuilt as a tennis hall after the destruction. The art-loving Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg , founding member of the Rheingau Music Festival , converted the room into a concert hall in which 10 out of 19 concerts took place in the first season in 1988, followed by many chamber concerts every year. After the death of her husband, the hall was called Fürst-von-Metternich-Saal. She was chairman of the board of trustees until her death. The tradition is carried on by the current owners.

Takeover by the Oetker Group

Already in 1865 the domain had entered into a connection with the still young Söhnlein sparkling wine cellar in Wiesbaden. Since then, Schloss Johannisberg has supplied basic wines for their top sparkling wine . This also gave rise to the “Fürst von Metternich” brand. Their cuvée is still put together today at Schloss Johannisberg. To secure business relationships, the Söhnlein Sektkellerei , which belongs to the Oetker Group , acquired joint ownership rights to the Schloss Johannisberg domain in 1974, which in 1980 became a majority. The administration was merged with that of the Oetker estate GH von Mumm. Today the domain is 100% owned by Henkell & Söhnlein Sektkellereien KG, which belongs to the Oetker Group . The two wineries included here, Schloss Johannisberg and GH von Mumm, now employ a good 40 full-time employees. Up to 120 reading assistants are added in autumn. Wolfgang Schleicher was probably the last person who was allowed to use the title “Domain Councilor” at Johannisberg Castle - it was given to him in 1987 by Paul Prince von Metternich. His work was honored with the award of "Gutsverwalter des Jahres 2003" by the Gault-Millau Germany wine guide .

The winery and castle are visited by around 130,000 visitors a year.

New Johannisberg Monastery

New Johannisberg Monastery Church (1928)
Hotel complex Johannisberg (2009)

The New Johannisberg Monastery, which is one kilometer away from the palace complex and originally (built in 1856) was a bath and sanatorium, has no historical connection with the original monastery. In 1920 Benedictine Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament bought the facility; They built the monastery church in 1928, which served as an emergency church in the Second World War after the destruction of the Romanesque church of Johannisberg Castle. The Benedictine nuns lived in a strict enclosure and ran a retirement home. For reasons of age and a lack of children, they had to give up in 1991. Thereafter, Divine Word Missionary Sisters took over the monastery; they also offered retreats and overnight stays, but could only last until December 31, 2004 for economic reasons. Since January 1, 2006, the complex has been a hotel with gardens and a restaurant.

See also

literature

  • Josef Staab , Hans R. Seeliger, Wolfgang Schleicher: Johannisberg Castle. Nine centuries of wine culture on the Rhine . Woschek-Verlag, Mainz 2001, ISBN 3-924744-35-1 .
  • Werner Schäfke : The Rhine from Mainz to Cologne a journey through the romantic Rhine Valley . 3rd updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7701-4799-5 , p. 294 ff. ( DuMont art travel guide ).
  • Clemens Jöckle , Josef Staab: Basilica of St. John the Baptist - Johannisberg in the Rheingau . = The castle and parish church on the Johannisberg in the Rheingau . 5th revised edition. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7954-4823-3 ( Schnell, art guide 1099).
  • Michael Mott : “Gem of the Fulda Prince's Hat” / A summer excursion into the history of Fulda: Johannisberg Castle in the Rheingau / Riesling wines and castle concerts, in: Fuldaer Zeitung , July 13, 1991, p. 13 (series: DENK-mal!).
  • Michael Mott: “Spatlaßen made into law” / Stories about the late reading rider (s) / The Johannisberger Ritt is celebrating its 225th anniversary this year, in: Fuldaer Zeitung, 22nd Sept. 2000, p. 12.

Web links

Commons : Schloss Johannisberg (Rheingau)  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Ernst Hornickel: Wein-Gotha. The great sites and top wines in Europe . Seewald Verlag Stuttgart, 1972, ISBN 3-512-00078-9
        The author counts Johannisberg Castle among the seven best locations in the Rheingau
  2. Daniel Deckers 2011: The world's first site classification map was for the Rheingau in 1867 ( memento of March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 92 kB)
  3. dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate: The Nassau viticulture: a sketch of the climatic, soil and Culture conditions of the Rheingau. Edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg
  4. Le Grand, 5 chapters, [1]
  5. a b Staab, Seeliger, Schleicher: Schloss Johannisberg , p. 120 ff
  6. ^ Johannisberg Castle - Johannisberg Castle. Retrieved July 13, 2020 .
  7. ^ WD von Horn, Wilhelm Oertel: The Rhine. History and legends of its abbeys, castles, monasteries and cities. Julius Riedner; Schäfer & Coradi, Wiesbaden; Philadelphia 1875, ISBN 5-88003-022-9 , pp. 119 ( limited preview in the Google book search - In this text the pogrom of Jews in Mainz is incorrectly dated to June 24th, the day of John the Baptist.).
  8. Simon Krämer: Pictures from the Jewish people's life . Self-published, Altenmuhr 1845, p. 56 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ^ Hermann Bär : Diplomatic history of the Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau . Ed .: Karl Rossel . tape 1 . Association for Nassau Antiquity and Historical Research , Wiesbaden 1855, p. 27 f ., urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10029476-2 .
  10. ^ Entry on the Johannisberg wine-growing landscape in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on July 14, 2017.
  11. ^ Dagmar Söder: Rheingau-Taunus District I.1 Altkreis Rheingau . Ed .: State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Theiss-Verlag , Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-2987-5
  12. Order of Lazarus
  13. ^ The Festival Stages ( Memento from June 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Rheingau Music Festival
  14. Rheingau Kantorei enthusiastically celebrated for their "creation" . Rheingau echo. May 20, 2009. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
  15. Christian von Hiller: A new era begins at Johannisberg Palace in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on December 30, 2004.
  16. ^ Criticism of Schloss Johannisberg ( memento from January 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Wiesbadener Tageblatt, accessed on August 1, 2014.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 10, 2007 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 58.8 ″  N , 7 ° 59 ′ 1.6 ″  E