Carl Graeger sparkling wine house

Sekthaus Carl Graeger KG
legal form	Limited partnership
founding	1877
Seat	Bingen am Rhein (since 1997)
management	Volker Valerius personally liable partner
Branch	Sparkling wine production, sparkling wine, wine
Website	www.graeger.de

Carl Graeger 1849–1902

The Sekthaus Carl Graeger KG is a sparkling wine cellar based in Bingen and has been producing various sparkling wines (white, premium, red, rosé, alcohol-free) under the name Graeger-Sekt since 1877 .

history

The Graeger family originally came from northern Hesse , where Johann Nicolaus Graeger ran a wine trade around 1700 . His descendants moved to Berlin in the 19th century , where they were also active in the wine trade. Otto and Heinrich Graeger founded a branch in Hochheim am Main from Berlin , where they acquired vineyards and started their own wine production . The management of the Hochheim branch was taken over by her brother Carl, who founded his own sparkling wine cellar in Hochheim in 1877 , the production of which increased rapidly after a few years. Due to the increasing export of his sparkling wine to Great Britain , Carl felt compelled to set up a branch in London in 1888 . During this time, the “ Sparkling Hock ”, the “foaming Hochheimer”, became the epitome of wines and sparkling wine from Hochheim in English-speaking countries. This name was later transferred to all sparkling Rhine wines .

In addition to his business activities, he invented including a special hoist for transporting champagne bottle , a bottle washing machine and a method of preservation of grape must . The two decades before the First World War were the heyday of sparkling wine. After Carl's death in 1902, his widow Ida took over the business, which she handed over to her son Alexander in 1910.

After the First World War, the Graeger Sektkellerei suffered considerable sales losses; among other things, the main export markets in Great Britain and the United States had to be severely restricted. While sales in Germany were initially largely stable, the company nevertheless lost market share and was ultimately unable to benefit from the population's increasing consumption of sparkling wine in the 1950s and 1960s.

With the death of Alexander Graeger's sister Emma in 1970, who had continued the business after the death of her brother, the Graeger family era ended. 1972 of was to provisions Testament Emma Graeger the company into a GmbH under the company converted "Graeger Carl GmbH sparkling wine" and it began a period of changing owners of sparkling wine, of which Wolfgang Braun and Otto Dude should be emphasized that the company between 1980 and 1985 led out of the crisis. In 1993, the company's own sparkling wine production was given up and the Graeg brands were immediately sparked off in another winery. Otto Geck retired in 1996 and the merchant Volker Valerius took over the Graeger sparkling wine house, who moved the location from Hochheim am Main to Bingen am Rhein in 1997 .

Notice board in Mainzer Straße in Hochheim: Sektkellerei Graeger since 1877, previously the courtyard houses of the families von Metternich-Winneburg ( Bassenheimer Hof ) and von Dahlberg from Mainz.
Entrance to the courtyard on Mainzer Strasse in Hochheim
Representative buildings on Mainzer Strasse in Hochheim
Access from Neudorfgasse to the converted cellar buildings in Hochheim

Production and manufacturing

Grape varieties

For the production of Graeger sparkling wine, primarily the grape varieties Riesling , Silvaner , Faber , Elbling , Spät- , Weiß- and Grauburgunder , sometimes also Müller-Thurgau or Traminer are used, whereby the grapes from German as well as other European cultivation areas are processed. The alcohol content of the base wines used for sparkling wine production is usually between seven and nine percent.

Growing areas

For a long time, the basic sparkling wines for Graeger sparkling wine came exclusively from the Rheingau and the Hessian Bergstrasse because of their extremely balanced acidity . Due to the increase in the consumption of sparkling wine, the supply from these growing areas alone is no longer sufficient and base wines from the Palatinate and Rheinhessen are also bought. Red sparkling wine is sometimes made from French or Italian base wines from different growing areas.

Fermentation process

In the production of Graeger sparkling wine, different fermentation processes are carried out depending on the variation . In addition to traditional bottle fermentation for sparkling wines , in which part of the fermentation process takes place in the bottle, various types of sparkling wine are produced using the tank fermentation process , in which a second fermentation of the sparkling wine base wines is carried out in pressure-resistant large fermentation containers. The alcohol content of 7 to 9 % by volume of the base wines increases by 1–1.5% by volume during the second fermentation in the bottle or in the tank, so that in the finished product, the Graeger sparkling wine, an alcohol content of up to a maximum 10.5% by volume is present.

Further products

The champagne house Graeger is compared to other champagne makers quite a small company that itself as a business partner for specialists , wholesale and retail , purchasing and department stores as well as delicatessen and wine shops looks. The company has accordingly expanded its range to include champagne , prosecco , sherry , port wine and French fruit liqueurs .

Awards

Even before the First World War, Graeger was recognized as one of the best German sparkling wine brands through numerous awards at exhibitions. The sparkling wine has been able to build on these successes to this day.

The Stern Journal awarded the Chardonnay Riesling Extra Trocken in 2007 as the best German sparkling wine in the test in the “International Summer Wines” category with four stars.

In the competition "Goldene Perle" of the trade journal "Weinwirtschaft" for the best German bottled sparkling wines in 2012, the "Pinot Blanc de Noir Sekt Pfalz, brut" in the category "Burgundy Cuvées, brut and extra brut" was among the ten with 85 points Winners in this category.

In 2010 the online portal for wines and gourmet products "Selection" awarded the 2008 "Pinot Blanc de Noir Brut" three stars in the "Premium Select Wine Challenge 2010" category.

literature

Repertories of the Hessian Economic Archives Section 114. Carl Graeger GmbH, arr. v. Ulrich Eisenbach. Darmstadt 2010.