20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

With its 70% incline, the Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg
site is the steepest vineyard of the Rheingau
A TICKET FROM
HOCHHEIM TO LORCH
AND BACK PLEASE
How do you best subdivide the Rheingau? How to categorise it in a fashion
that does justice to the diversity of its wines? Here is a fresh attempt.
WORDS ULRICH SAUTTER
It takes the Deutsche Bahn rail service an
hour and five minutes to cover the distance
between Hochheim and Lorch.
While travelling, you pass 3,185ha/7870
acres of vineyard, more or less visible from
the train track. Rheingau is not a large region
but even within the moderate confines of
German viticulture Rheingau only takes
eighth place in terms of hectarage.
Nonetheless, your head quickly starts
spinning when you try to define a common
Rheingau thread. Certainly, Riesling thrives
throughout, but considering the quality levels
at which Rheingau wines are discussed this
does not really say much. If you delve deeper
into the subject, you realise that the wines
grown in Hochheim have little in common
with those grown in Lorch. Even if you zoom
into a smaller area, the wines grown close to
the forest and those at higher elevations in
the Steinberg, taste completely different from
those grown in the Erbacher Marcobrunn on
the river – and the distance is just four
kilometres as the crow flies.
VALLEY AND MOUNTAIN
The first attempt at classifying the
Rheingau vineyards, undertaken in 1867
by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg, and
unearthed from the dusty darkness of an
archive just a few years ago by historian
and journalist Daniel Deckers, supports
438 falstaff Wine Guide Germany 2021