20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

RHEINGAU | A PORTRAIT OF THE REGION
Photos: provided, Deutsches Weininstitut/www.deutscheweine.de
approach is that even – and especially –
the slate soils need a little fat, i.e. loam or
clay and therefore water retention, in
order to deliver consistent results.
Dünkelberg’s motivation is equally clear in
Kiedrich where he awards higher
classifications to parcels of “loess-slope
loam with admixture of mica schist” than
those of “weathered mica schist with
non-calcareous loess-loam admixture”.
Which means? More loam with a little
mica schist is better than mica schist with
a little loam. Today the consequences of
climate change come on top of these
multifarious effects. For the most part they
seem to have been considered in the VDP’s
classification. Ripening grapes is no longer
restricted to fully south-facing sites. And if
the possibility of irrigation will compensate
for the dryness of certain sites in the future,
it will merely make the mosaic of Rheingau
sites even more complex.
LIMESTONE
One element which usually has high currency
across the world of wine but is often
overlooked in the Rheingau is limestone.
Sites near the river like Marcobrunn, Sankt
Nikolaus and Jesuitengarten benefit – like the
By now, Philipp Corvers of Weingut
Dr. Corvers-Kauter and his father farm
30 hectares of vineyards together
best limestone sites of Rheinhessen on the
opposite bank of the Rhine – from the
calcareous substrates of the Mainz Basin
which approximately 20 million years ago
used to be an inland sea. If you thus want to
subdivide the Rheingau sensibly, the relevant
question for the categorisation of any
vineyard might be formulated as follows:
where within that square of soil depth,
calcareousness, presence of quartzite/slate
and altitude is it located? Normally you
would expect that deep soils and
calcareousness correlate with valley sites. The
two outer points of Hochheim and Lorch fit
this profile: Hochheim with its heavy loess
loams and calcareous marls near the river,
Lorch with shallow soils and stony slopes.
However, the Rheingau also boasts sites like
the Steinberg that combines the depth of its
soils with altitude and slate. In the end, and
that really means that the Rheingau, within
your glass, thus remains complex and hard to
fathom. What a pleasure.
INFO
Lord over poor slate and heavy
loam soils: Dr. Matthias Corvers
of Weingut Dr. Corvers-Kauter
Read more about this author in our Tasting
Panel chapter on page 12.
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