Fritz Hasselbach, who oversaw Weingut Gunderloch for more than three decades turning it into one of Germany’s greatest wine estates During his tenure at Gunderloch, located in the Rheinhessen region, Hasselbach made 30 wines that scored a classic-rated 95 points or higher on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale. He concentrated on making noble sweet wines and realized perfection three times 1996 and 1992 vintages of the Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese Rheinhessen Nackenheim Rothenberg which were made from the Rothenberg vineyard’s famed red slate soils “His selection in the vineyard was one of his great skills,” said California-based importer Rudi Wiest who has handled Gunderloch wines in the U.S “He knew which part of the Rothenberg was for the great sweets and what was best for the dry [wines] He was a very kind man and had a lot of friends.” Hasselbach graduated from the viticultural school in Eltville in the Rheingau and also earned enology and viticultural degrees from Germany’s leading winemaking school in Geisenheim He later worked as a viticulture consultant at the research institute in Oppenheim Hassebach’s son Johannes, 37, succeeded his father in overseeing Gunderloch earlier this year. Hasselbach is also survived by Agnes and their two daughters, Stefanie and Kathrin. Consumers got the chance to taste dozens of outstanding wines in Chicago, with upcoming … The owner of Stoller and Chehalem wineries was devoted to the future of Willamette Valley … Inside the first U.S. location of the French luxury retailer, guests can enjoy fine wine at … Phase one of the Viticulture and Winery Technology program’s new home, funded by a $10 … The Tuscan wine company has purchased a minority stake in Tenute delle Terre Nere; De … While the White House has paused tariffs on foreign wines at 10 percent for now, the trade … Jochen Dreissigacker’s story exemplifies Rheinhessen’s wine revolution new winery finished in May 2018 is visible from afar Built into the vineyard to exacting standards It is site potential and confidence made manifest remembers a time when punters recoiled from Rheinhessen at wine tastings so tainted was the region with its image of cheap The only wine worth tasting would be from the Roter Hang or Red Slope – a dramatic escarpment along the Rhinefront danke.’ To a degree this was justified – and climate change was a decisive factor shows that while viticulture was widespread and central to the economy there were only two spots where Riesling ripened reliably: on the famous Red Slope and in the Scharlachberg The rest of Rheinhessen was often too cool to ripen Riesling fully each year her Kiwi husband Jeremy Bird-Huff and her father Fritz Ekkehard farm 8.5ha in Nierstein and Schwabsburg with choice parcels in Pettenthal and Orbel She is one of the young stars at the Roter Hang making wines that combine effortless lightness and wonderful Johannes Hasselbach joined this quality stalwart on the Roter Hang after a time in accounting His family was famous for its off-dry and nobly sweet wines from the Rothenberg vineyard but Johannes makes predominantly dry wines which always seem to have an appealing scent of petrichor His work in channelling the heat in the vineyard is exemplary Carolin Spanier-Gillot’s parents managed to assemble a great portfolio of sites on the Roter Hang and she went about expressing it the wines are made by her husband Hans-Oliver Spanier who runs his equally great Battenfeld-Spanier estate on the limestones of the Wonnegau large old barrels and long ageing on gross lees to bring out salty This young couple have struck out to make unconventional skin-fermented and amphora-aged wines and do so with utter precision and devotion and a particular knack for creating expressive blends While Julia & Klaus Peter Keller’s G-Max Riesling is too rare for ordinary mortals to get their hands on simply everything that the Kellers produce is worth buying – and surprisingly affordable If you can get your hands on a Scheurebe Kabinett Fritz Groebe is the quiet man of the Wonnegau His wines are made in a very time-honoured slow fashion in an old vaulted cellar beneath Westhofen Wilhelm Steifensand is a descendant of PJ Valckenberg who in 1808 bought the vineyards once tended by the Capuchin monks of the Liebfrauenstift The Valckenberg trading company popularised the original Liebfraumilch in the 19th century and paved the way for the pale imitations that swept the world in the 1960s and ’70s Steifensand sold his share in 2015 but retained the original vineyards in Worms with the aim of restoring this Riesling to its historic glory Philipp Wittmann’s parents were already ahead of their time with organic farming and Philipp introduced biodynamic methods as early as 2004 the estate has climbed to Germany’s top with pristine Rieslings from the best sites in Westhofen Wittmann also buys in additional fruit for his affordable 100 Hügel label Since brothers Björn and Tobias Knewitz took over their parental estate in 2009 they have earned deserved plaudits for their brilliantly pure They farm 20ha mainly of calcareous loams and marls on limestone bedrock around Appenheim Daniel Wagner has put this ruggedly beautiful area on the map with his steely uncompromisingly thrilling Rieslings grown in the volcanic ridges of rhyolite and melaphyr Freddy Price was a well-respected wine writer and an authority of German Riesling he became on of the founding members of the German Wine Institute\u2019s Riesling Fellowship in 2013 alongside Hugh Johnson and Jancis Robinson MW He passed away on 27 June 2018 at the age of 86 Rheinhessen is a dirty word for most wine lovers If there’s one wine that can be blamed for German wine’s image problem Ubiquitous at student parties and old people’s homes in the 1980s mass-production was so successful that Liebfraumilch became the world’s biggest generic wine brand It was not until the mid-1990s that research by the German Wine Institute discovered the obvious – Liebfraumilch summed up by the oft-heard phrase: ‘I don’t like German wine still produces one in four bottles of all German wine and deserves a far more discerning audience Most of Rheinhessen’s land is suitable for mixed farming meaning wine is just another product for many farmers who are happy to sell in bulk to big bottlers who blend and sell them Hence the names of the best growers and vineyards have remained unknown The politicised 1971 Wine Laws permitted wines from within five miles of the best-known villages to be labelled with their name and leading to the bankruptcy of many famous producers most growers planted a hotchpotch of ‘new’ Vineyards were sprayed with too much chemical fertiliser insecticide and herbicide: picking was by machine: in the cellars rapid temperature-controlled techniques for fermenting musts with cultured yeast in stainless steel tanks replaced traditional methods of slow fermentation in large oak barrels with indigenous yeasts Things weren’t helped by the pathetically weak and bureaucratic wine laws for Liebfraumilch which state that: the wine must be from one specific region – Rheinhessen Rheingau or Nahe (making up over half the total wine area of Germany!); it must include 70% of any blend of Müller-Thurgau Kerner and Riesling (the other 30% can be any white grape!); and it must have 18 to 40g per litre of residual sugar (the maximum for a dry wine is 8g!!) no longer have Liebfraumilch on their labels: they supply supermarkets with a range of rather more attractive and drier whites (including straight Riesling) and reds the renaissance of Riesling has come to the rescue of German wine however: the soil must be corrected: more Riesling Silvaner and Burgundian varieties must be planted: picking must be by hand new markets must be found for these more expensive wines a brilliant generation of young growers is changing the whole nature and quality of Rheinhessen wines jointly market their wines and travel to other countries – things previous generations did not do The climate is benign and the soil composed of limestone and this is where today’s Rheinhessen Revolution began When Klaus Keller of Weingut Keller married his wife Hedwig in 1972 she persuaded him to plant the elegant Riesling from her native Saar Life was hard until the quality of their Rieslings was recognised in 1992 By 1996 their range of wines was considered to be the finest in Rheinhessen In 2002 Klaus gave his son Klaus-Peter full responsibility for the 60% Riesling from simple Silvaner Gutswein (estate wine) dry Grosses Gewächs (grand cru) and noble sweet Riesling Auslese from Westhofener Morstein and Kirchspiel to the great Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) from Dalsheimer Bürgel https://www.decanter.com/premium/producer-profile-weingut-keller-367680/ From 1990 Weingut Wittmann’s vineyards have been organic which is reflected in the wines’ purity and authenticity Günter Wittmann handed over to his son Philipp the president of Rheinhessen VDP (Association of Quality Wine Estates) including the Grosses Gewächs dry Rieslings Westhofener Morstein Friedrich Groebe calls himself ‘wine artisan and traditionalist’ and says ‘I want my wines to have Riesling character and expression – no pears or passion fruit!’ His Weingut Groebe has 65% Riesling The dry Grosses Gewächs Kirchspiel Riesling 2004 has great fruit and limestone terroir flavour and will develop with time but not overpowering 2004 Kirchspiel Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese makes a good comparison with the 1988 which had the orange tinge of the vintage and a subtle and endless flavour of ripe figs and apricots Florian Fauth was 19 when he started in 1999 at his family estate 10% each of Weissburgunder and Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) the dry yet rich Westhofener Morstein Riesling Gerhard Gutzler decided to concentrate on quality wines and in 2006 he was elected to the VDP Weingut Gutzler has Spätburgunder (32%) Riesling (28%) plus Chardonnay It owns vines in the top Riesling vineyards plus Niersteiner Ölberg and the vineyard from which the name Liebfraumilch was derived whose 2005 dry Riesling was powerful with a typical slightly smoky nose The 2003 Westhofener Morstein Spätburgunder on limestone soil was fine and elegant with good acidity to ensure future development has handed over the responsibility for the wines to his young son Michael The Battenfeld-Spanier estate has been organic since 1995 Oliver Spanier is a young man with a mission to make great Rieslings (50%) and Spätburgunders (20%) in forgotten vineyards in south Wonnegau 2003 was his first vintage to hit the headlines and 2005 has confirmed him as a master of Riesling His top-quality dry Rieslings are Hohen-Sülzner Kirchenstück ‘R’ and Flörsheimer Frauenberg ‘R’: the 2005 of the former has great richness and only 3g of sugar per litre; the latter has greater finesse and a classic mineral character Nierstein starts just south of Mainz and includes Oppenheim and Nackenheim The best sites are on the slope facing east where the soil is weathered red slate with plenty of iron The style and quality of the wines is due to the soil which gives warmth from reflected morning sunshine and cool breezes at night as well as plenty of botrytis in the autumn for the noble sweet Riesling https://www.decanter.com/sponsored/mainz-rheinhessen-best-of-wine-tourism-winners-2019-401819/ In the early 1980s Fritz and Agnes Hasselbach took the bold step of reducing their yields to aim for quality Weingut Gunderloch has been consistently among Rheinhessen’s top three It boasts 80% Riesling and has made the reputation of Nackenheimer Rothenberg as the finest vineyard in Rheinhessen for noble sweet wines The 2004 Rothenberg Rieslings live up to all my expectations: the dry Riesling has all the qualities of a brilliant Grosses Gewächs though not labelled so: the Auslese has little botrytis great Riesling purity and characteristic Roter Hang richness: the Auslese Gold Kapsel is fabulous and the Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese outrageously glorious Roland Gillot has a faithful clientele for his Weingut Kühling-Gillot dry Rieslings (46%) and The 2003 Grosses Gewächs Spätburgunder Oppenheimer Kreuz is deep in colour and has great complexity His daughter Carolin has taken responsibility for the whites and made a splendid range in 2004 and an even finer one in 2005 The Grosses Gewächs Riesling Niersteiner Pettental is already showing sheer class; just 3g of sugar per litre and a perfect balance of ripe fruit and power Dr Alex Michalski has been director of Weingut Sankt Antony for over 30 years and the dry Rieslings were brilliant until the middle of the 1990s bought Sankt Antony and in 2006 he took a 30-year lease on Weingut Heyl Zu Herrnsheim from the Ahr family With 22.5ha of fine vineyards (65% Riesling) Of the 2005 potential Grosses Gewächs Rieslings Niersteiner Ölberg is the most seductive now and Pettental the most promising for later Peter von Weymarn arrived in 1969 and rapidly made the 17ha of Weingut Heyl Zu Herrnsheim’s prime vineyards (70% Riesling) fully organic From then until it was sold in 1994 to the Ahr family this was the leading Rheinhessen estate for dry Rieslings The vineyards deteriorated in recent years but the 2004 dry Grosses Gewächs Riesling Pettental has great authority and fruit without heaviness while the monopoly vineyard Brudersberg is even finer more delicate with less richness but greater length The vineyards are being reorganised and regenerated but the different character of each wine from each estate will be kept south-facing Riesling vineyard with quartzite Weingut Villa Sachsen had a great reputation but in recent years the quality dropped took full control in 2006 and embarked on a massive investment to improve vineyard and cellar The Riesling is in the best part of the terraced Scharlachberg and Felix Prinz zu Salm-Salm soon to complete his studies at Geisenheim will be responsible for restoring the reputation of this historic estate Siefersheim is a hilly village southeast of Bad Kreuznach Its soil is volcanic porphyry and sandy loam The brilliant young Daniel Wagner’s grandfather made great Rieslings and now he is doing so at the family estate and the wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts in large oak barrels The two potential 2005 Grosses Gewächs Rieslings are Siefersheimer Höllberg a cooler late-ripening terraced vineyard with greater finesse and length His botrytised Ausleses have a mineral purity of Riesling to rival those of Weingut Dönnhoff in Nahe Freddy Price is the author of Riesling Renaissance (Mitchell Beazley