Our Work

The Romans knew a lot about the advantage of the Palatinate climate being favourable for viticulture. This long tradition is being continued with us cultivating classic grape varieties like Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir.
	In the beginning of the year (January/February/March), we are already aware of the quality later on at your wine glass - all but one cane of the previous year's growth are removed. With this careful pruning the quantity and quality of the anticipated harvest can be influenced.
The environmental protection friendly use of pheromones and the intensive foliage treatment during June/July and August contribute to a good ripening of the grapes and the susceptibility of diseases by fungus and parasites is reduced.
	In late August/early September - short before harvesting - not fully ripened grapes or faulty grapes will be removed by negative selection (hand-picking) to achieve a higher quality of the wines.
After harvesting cellar work starts with mashing the destemmed berries in large wooden vats - a classic method of winemaking. Destemming means the separation of the berries from the stems in order to reduce tannin in the wine. Skin fermentation generates the red colour from the red grapes. After fermentation the mash (crushed must) is pressed and then pumped into large wooden casks. With the help of malo-lactic fermentation, wines with a smooth and velvet character will be created. Some of our high potential red wines are matured in small barrels (contents 225 l) called "barrique". These small barrels are manufactured of special wood (Allier Oak) with a fine toasting. The so-called "Barriqueweine" (barriques wines) - achieve a wonderful warm and full-bodied character with the typical smooth fragrance of Vanilla and roasty aromes.
	Our white wines are harvested during cold outside temperatures and immediately pressed in our wine press or, in case of our Gewürztraminer after a short time of mashing, to achieve the very special bouquet of this wine. The fresh grape must is more or less charged with particles and impurities. Therefore it is pre-clarified, i.e. the must is pumped in vats, so the particles settle by their own gravity. The clarified white wine must is then pumped in either wooden casks or stainless steel tanks. A stainless steel tank seals the wine. There is no exchange of air. The wine matures more slowly, keeps fresh longer, and conserves the delicate aroma which developped during fermenation. Otherwise a wooden barrel can breathe through its pores. The oxygen pushes the maturation process of the wine and new flavours are formed. Both, steeltanks and wooden casks are available at our cellars. So, we are in a position to decide on which method of maturing is the best for our wines.
"Time is money"- a proverbe, although not valid for winemakers! We take all the time for the vinification of our wines and our estate's viticulture! Winemaking is strongly focussed on producing quality wines by optimising the intense fruit flavour and varietal characters from the vineyard - and this normally takes a lot of time! Careful vintaging and the use of traditional winemaking techniques ensures the development of full, soft rounded flavours. Permanent wine tasting isn't only a duty for us - it is a real pleasure to see how wines are developping during maturing at the cellar!
	A small maturation process also exist on bottled wines. A lot of red wine varieties achieve its optimum at least over 5 or often more years! Despite of todays' "just in time" logistic philosophy, it is our effort to store old vintage wines of high quality for you as well in our cellars.
We hope you have had some fun with our self-made homepage - as a family-run wine estate our budget for marketing and promotion is limited. Nevertheless, we are able to offer you our quality wines at fair prices. You may imagine, we certainly are not in a position to compete with discounter prices!