20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

MITTELRHEIN | A PORTRAIT OF THE REGION
Photos: Deutsches Weininstitut, provided
who really want to work here are left,”
Lanius notes. People who have a passion
for viticulture. This has created a veritable
boom between Königswinter and Bacharach.
The last few years have seen the arrival
of newcomers and career-changers, like
Kay Thiele in Königswinter or Sarah Hulten
who crowdsourced the financing for her
first vineyard in Leutesdorf, while young
winemakers like Felix Pieper and Christos
Christian Theodoropoulos of Weingut
Líthos were able to establish themselves.
Who could have imagined that the
Mittelrhein would turn into an Eldorado
for wine freaks?
Lanius also notes that the landscape looks
much greener now as more of the fallow
parcels are being recultivated. “We have
vineyards of immense potential and barely
anyone knows them,” he says and thinks of
sites like Engehöller Bernstein am Lauerbaum.
For the longest time people looked
down on the Mittelrhein, thinking of it as a
backwater. When people spoke of German
Riesling, they raved about the famous sites
of Mosel and Rheingau. “The Mittelrhein is
still misunderstood,” Lanius believes, even
though the proportion of Riesling is higher
Self-taught organic grower and
winemaker Kay Thiele
Jörg and Anja Lanius, Weingut Lanius-Knab
here than in Mosel and Rheingau. “We have
great potential for mineral and long-lived
Riesling,” he says, even though the news has
not quite got around everywhere. “We no
longer have to hide,” he says. “And we
certainly don’t have to feel inferior.”
Christiane Lambrich-Henrich of Weingut
Goswin Lambrich in Oberwesel-Dellhofen is
another voice of Mittelrhein confidence and
contentment. She notes how the youngsters
in particular stick together; if anyone
encounters a problem, help is immediately at
hand via digital media. This is a new kind of
collaboration and cooperation, something
that did not exist in the same way for
previous generations. However, she is also
wary of too much euphoria, not everything
is rosy. Drought stress and lack of water are
just two things the Mittelrhein struggles
with. “In some sites it is almost getting too
hot for Riesling,” the 44-year-old says. For
this reason, she planted Roter Riesling some
years ago. In her opinion it is better at
handling these altered growing conditions.
She runs the estate together with her brother
Matthias Lambrich and spends a lot of time
thinking about the future. “We wonder
what we can plant in the hot sites in the
long term,” she says, noting that Merlot or
Cabernet-Sauvignon might be appealing,
197