20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

VINCENT EYMANN | GÖNNHEIM, PFALZ
AN AMBITIOUS BUT DOWN-TO-
EARTH REALIST
WORDS RAINER SCHÄFER
Photos: Weingut Lassak, Lucie Greiner Medienagenten
Gönnheim,’ Vincent Eymann says
with merciless honesty, ‘is not
known for anything.’ This
diagnosis also applies to the
situation of his home village, located
beyond the well-frequented destinations
of the Pfalz Wine Route and its attendant
gourmet culture. Clearly, this 29-year-old
winemaker is not inclined towards
self-mutilation and is in possession of
healthy confidence. Clearly, he also knows
how to assess the local conditions
realistically: In and around Gönnheim,
where Eymann farms roughly 15 hectares
of vineyards, vines root in deep loess and
loam soils that are partly calcareous. Even
if these sites are rather suited to Pinotvarieties,
Eymann suggests, in comparison
to the famous site of the Haardt they are
more like potato fields. That is why Eyman
was ‘incredibly keen’, when the opportunity
arose, to take over two and a half hectares
in the Bad Dürkheimer Fuchsmantel and
Wachenheimer Schlossberg sites in 2017.
This is where he farms up to 90-year-old
ungrafted Riesling vines that root in Triassic
sandstone.
Vincent Eymann has a clear focus. Right
after graduating from Geisenheim
university in 2015, he returned to his
Demeter-certified parental estate, even
though he would have loved to expand his
experience abroad. But his father Rainer
Eyman had been ‘at the limit’. Thus the
youngster pulled his weight, as is his wont.
His parents went down the organic path as
early as 1982 and started farming biodynamically
in 2003. Rainer Eymann, an
‘idealist’ and bold pioneer for alternative
viticulture met with quite a lot of
opposition, ‘even from his own father,’
Eymann junior adds. Eymann senior had
used the medieval spelling of the family’s
name - ‘Toreye’ - for his top wines. As early
25