The Rhine forms the eastern and northern boundary of the region, with the river In general the wines are best nearest the Rhine, where the soils impart more complex flavours. So, what a joyful thing it was to receive an invitation from Bottlestops is a small local business owned and run by Jérôme Hainz. They are predominately white: lots of Riesling, of course, and also Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Weissburgunder (Pinot blanc) and Grauburgunder (Pinot gris/Pinot grigio). wine programs; Class wines from Rheinhessen Quality is program They are called Grosses Gewächs, Selection Rheinhessen or Siegerwein and stand for impressive wines from Rheinhessen Wines with personality. However, Silvaner has also made a name for itself. Traditionally, Rheinhessen was the home of Liebfraumilch, the simple and inexpensive white wine that defined German exports for decades.

The reds grown here include, again, Spätburgunder and Portugieser.Our third and final winery stop was at another small family-run business, one with a 550-year wine growing tradition, run by a young, ambitious man who’s following in the footsteps of several generations of winemakers. Reds are also produced here: Spätburgunder (Pinot noir) and Portugeiser to name the most widely grown two. The wine region is a member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network.

Rheinhessen is Germany's largest region for producing the quality wines of the Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete and Prädikatswein designations, with roughly 26,500 hectares (65,000 acres) of vineyards as of 2014.

The Nahe may not boast the romantic castles of the Rheingau and the cruise boats that zip up the Rhein alongside them, nor is it Thanks to its wide range of soil types, the vineyards here produce some very interesting wines. After finishing up our first tasting, we climbed back into Jérôme’s very comfortable mini bus and followed the vintners up into the hills for a wander through their vineyards.We wandered along happily, discussing the harvesting process with the man in charge of it, taking in the views across the valley, and tasting a couple of sweet green grapes plucked straight off the vines.

The first was a family-run business on an estate that has been producing wine since 1730, in a small town a 45 minute drive from Mainz. But now more and more village winemakers are using a wide range of grapes, including Riesling, Sylvaner, Scheurebe and even Spätburgunder , in addition to the once-ubiquitous Müller-Thurgau. A group of hot, sweaty workers lead by the vintners’ daughter emerged with buckets overflowing with grapes; they turned out to be the local football team, who’d been roped into harvesting the last of the fruits.We all ate lunch together, sitting at tables overlooking the valley: bowls of hot We spent the late afternoon in the outskirts of a town in the Rheinhessen wine region, 40 minutes back in the direction of Mainz. Today Rheinhessen sports an ocean of opportunities for young winemakers keenly showing off … Named after the river that runs through it, it’s a steeply hilly area filled with vineyards, fields and orchards and, in the warm, honey-coloured light of an unseasonably warm October day, buckets of charm. I want to explore much more of this beautiful area in which I’m so lucky to live.

The Dieter Braatz, Ulrich Sautter, Ingo Swoboda, Jancis Robinson, Wine Atlas of Germany the best vineyards in Rheinhessen, University of California Press 2014; p. 117ff, retrieved on 27 October 2018Rheinhessen, The History of the County of Katzenelnbogen and the First Riesling of the World

On returning home at the beginning of October, I made myself a promise. Originally from Mainz, but having lived abroad for many years, Jérôme decided he wanted to share the viticultural joys of his home turf with English-speakers by offering a variety of small group wine-tasting tours in and around his hometown.

We sat together on the sunny patio of the family restaurant run by his sister, tasting a selection of very interesting white wines under his guidance, and sampling some In both of these wine regions, much of the wine is sold to private customers as opposed to large firms, so it’s a great place to support small/family businesses, many of whom have had loyal customers for very many years.