Riesling wines made in Rhinegau have a huge tradition

Parallel to the monastery's committment to viticulture, a sort of royal wine culture started to exist in the Rhinegau, which can still be found today, like the royal wineries Schloss Vollrad, Schloss Schönborn, Schloss Reinhartshausen or the very traditional winery Freiherr Langwerth von Simmern.

The classic Riesling-area stretches from the right side of the Rhine river between hochheim and Lorchhausen, exactly where the Rhine changes its course from south to north and where it flows from east to west for about 50 kilometers. Almost 80 percent of 3100 hectares is cultivated with the royal grape. - The Riesling -. In terms of new trends the Rhinegau winemakers have remained faithful to their history. In the western region of the idyllic village of Assmannshausen you will find the only exception, namely the blue Pinot Noir. Geographically, the Rhinegau belongs to the Rhine-Main-area, one of the warmest and driest climate zones in central Europe. There, the sun shines an average of 1600 hours long and there is only about 600 milimiters of precipitation every calendar year.

There is two quality terms that were invented in the Rhinegau. The term "Kabinett" comes from the Zisterzienser monchs at the monastery Eberbach. The term was first used in 1712 (then spelled with a 'C') for particularly high-quality wines. In the old monastery Johannisberg of the Beneditkiner monchs, the noble sweet Spaetlese (late vintage) was discovered in 1775. A prolonged permit to finish the picking a little later led to the grapes being hit by the noble rot. Although everyone thought that the harvest was lost, the monchs brought back all the grapes and still used them. When they were tasting the wine in spring of the previous year, they were extremely surprised by the excellent quality of the wine. Ever since then, the term "Spaetlese" has been used for particularly good wines and at the same time, the good effect of the noble rot, the mildew Botrytis cinerea, was discovered. (a.kohnen)