The people

Our great- and grandparents worked in the Nittel/Mosel region as well as in Rüdesheim/Rhein area and in Strasbourg in viticulture and wine trade.  Working with hand and horse in the vineyard have become as familiar to us, as juice, wine and sparkling wine production. Our interest is to discover what is understood in practice.  Every year we get a new opportunity to produce grapes and prepare wine.  We are open to the challenges posed by climate and vintage.  We question our experience, observe, experiment and learn to act.  Without the people who share our passion, this trip to oenology would not take place – therefore we are grateful.

The place

On Rheinknie where Mäuseturm and Ehrenfels Castle face each other, we maintain
150 meters above the Rhine our vineyard with 1750 vines on 5000 m2.  The terraces are held by 500 meters of dry stone walls directly supported by the Rüdesheim rock face.  The kettle-shaped, skeleton-rich vineyard is inclined to south-south-west.

The viticulture

The cultivation of the vine is an intervention in nature.  Since we want to produce riesling and sparkling wine, which tastes to us and our friends, we only intervene in the culturing of the vine as absolutely necessary.  The vines are from a selection program of ancient riesling clones from the Rhine and the Moselle executed by the Institute for Grapevine Breeding and Grafting from the Geisenheim Research Institute.  The genetic material is derived from vineyards from the late 19th and early 20th century partly planted on own roots without rootstocks on the steep slopes of the two rivers.
 

We use the flora and fauna in the Rüdesheimerberg above river kilometer 531 to achieve our goal. Birds, insects and other natural enemies of viticultural pests, in conjunction with appropriate cultural methods like canopy management, plant protection and soil preparation, ensure the development of the grapes for our riesling.
According to our understanding of viticulture and winemaking, we support the biological processes by oenological decisions. The composition of the ingredients in our wine and sparkling wine re-arises each year.
Ripe grapes arise not only from the achievement of a certain concentration of glucose and fructose, but the specific composition of secondary plant constituents, year by year, is what differentiates the grape quality.  When this specific maturity is reached - usually mid-October - we harvest.

The winemaking

Naturally composed grape material of optimal maturity, after a maceration period of several hours, extracted intensively using a low pressure pneumatic press, delivers the foundation of our wine making process.  The juice clarification is carried out by static sedimentation without additives.  If the grapes are healthy, we start the spontaneous fermentation through the natural yeast flora. The - racking of - from the sediment after alcoholic fermentation does not take place before the end of the calender year.  Sulfur dioxide and clay minerals are used for stabilization.  After a further ripening on the fine lees we clarify our wine by using casein and fishprotein.  Then we filter our wine before bottling.  Using classical bottle fermentation, we reserve a portion of our harvest for the production of sparkling wine.  To achieve our renowned balanced aroma we store the sparkling wine respectively 12 or 24 months on the lees.