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Bremm Calmont — Bremm Calmont. With a slope of up to 68 degrees and a height of 380 metres, the Bremm Calmont is one of the steepest vineyards in Europe. There is written evidence of viticulture in the Calmont since about the year 1000, but indications suggest that the Romans were already cultivating grapes here much earlier. The name of the mountain derives from the Latin calidus mons (hot mountain) or, less likely, from calvus mons (bare mountain). According to the German wine law of 1971, the district of Eller in the neighbouring municipality of Ediger-Eller also owns shares of the Calmont. As a result of unprofitable cultivation, a good five-sixths of the originally planted vineyard area lay fallow in the 1990s. At the turn of the millennium, the Bremm winemaker Ulrich Franzen († 2010) recultivated the 1.8 hectare Fachkaul and planted cross terraces there.

Tasting

Bordeaux: 2022 a vintage of the century?

Great wines despite great drought

Apostrophising a vintage as the vintage of the century even before a centenary has passed may seem premature. However, with regard to the 2022s from the Bordeaux region, the assessment that exceptional wines were produced in that year is undoubtedly anything but bold. Of course, not all châteaux were able to triumph. Moreover, the 2022 was anything but a sure-fire success. The course of the vintage presented the winemakers with major challenges. However, in many cases, the result in the bottle can be downright inspiring. We tasted a cross-section of the vintage on the occasion of the presentation of the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux at this year's ProWein.

Comment

ProWein in decline

Large drop in exhibitors and visitors at the international wine fair in Düsseldorf

In its press release, Messe Düsseldorf celebrates ProWein 2025 (16–18 March) as a success. However, the facts speak a different language. Only 4200 exhibitors, 20 per cent fewer than last year, were spread across the eleven exhibition halls. The number of visitors also fell, by a good ten per cent to 42000 compared to 2024. While the trade fair continues to emphasise the outstanding importance of ProWein for the international wine industry, the exodus of German wine producers in particular has reached a new dimension. Only around 900 exhibitors came from Germany in 2025.

Knowledge

Against viticulture and for the death of the Apollo butterfly

Absurd lawsuit against Rhineland-Palatinate

gegen-den-weinbau-und-fuer-die-vernichtung-des-apollofalters.jpg — Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) is a non-profit organisation under German association law, but above all it is a group of lobbyists who receive state support for their activities. According to the online platform auto.de, this amounted to almost five million Euros in 2018. The DUH received further 2.5 million Euros from the lucrative business of issuing warning letters. DUH is now suing the state of Rhineland-Palatinate together with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rheinisch-Westfälischer Lepidopterologen (AGL). Since 2011, the state's Ministry of Viticulture has repeatedly granted winegrowers in the Lower Moselle region exemptions for helicopter spraying, which is prohibited by law in the state.

Knowledge

From Abtsberg to Äbtissinsberg?

Gender equality in vineyard names

There are over 2600 individual vineyards in Germany, and many of them can look back on a history of several hundred years. Until recently, the proper names of the vineyards were never scrutinised. At the end of last year, however, a newly formed working group met for the first time at the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, which is responsible for viticulture, to examine the catalogue of German vineyard sites from the point of view of gender equality. The working group is chaired by linguist Angelika Balgthöter-Hasenfratz from the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Knowledge

Underground power lines instead of vineyards

Hochheim am Main defends itself

Germany is facing an energy transition. Fossil fuels, whose share of electricity generation continues to decline but still currently accounts for around 35 per cent, are not available indefinitely. In 100 years at the latest, the remaining raw materials would be exhausted if the production volume remained the same. Because politicians have been asleep for decades, things need to move quickly now. Forward-looking and far-sighted planning has fallen by the wayside. Construction measures are being driven forward with a crowbar that are likely to destroy the economic performance of an entire region and, not least, a wine culture that is thousands of years old.

Tasting

“A new chapter”

Christoph Eifel continues the family tradition

The history of the Trittenheim family business can be traced back to 1635. The next generation took over in 2021. The Ernst Eifel winery became the Christoph Eifel winery. The question of what exactly has changed as a result of the generational change is not easy to answer. It would undoubtedly be a miracle if Christoph Eifel, who learnt the winemaking trade from Nik Weis in Leiwen and Thomas Haag in Lieser before studying viticulture in Geisenheim, did not introduce his own ideas and carefully develop the style of the wines. But this does not necessarily mean a break.

Tasting

A vision lives on

From the Fuchs-Jacobus winery to Gut Steyerberg

As early as 1989, the Jacobus family cultivated their vineyards according to the guidelines of the Demeter Association, making them one of the pioneers of biodynamic viticulture in Germany. Wilfried and Marlene Jacobus have now largely retired. Because their children did not want to take over the business, it was actually supposed to be sold. But things turned out differently. Thorben Bosse took over, and the Fuchs-Jacobus winery has since become Gut Steyerberg. Werner Elflein tasted a great wine collection and spoke with the new owner.

Tasting

The Piwi Kollektiv

An integrated concept for organic viticulture

If the state government has its way, the proportion of organically farmed land in Baden-Württemberg should increase to up to 40 per cent by 2030. This also applies to viticulture. However, many small family businesses in Baden are traditionally organised in cooperatives and only cultivate their mostly small vineyards as a sideline. Martin Schmidt, owner of the Kiefer and Schmidt wineries in Eichstetten, and Philipp Rottmann thought about this and founded the Piwi Kollektiv.

Tasting

Virginia on the road

The development of a young wine region

Compared to the total area under vines in the United States, Virginia's viticulture may only play a minor role. In terms of quality, however, the wines of the state on the American east coast have become increasingly important in recent decades. Although Virginia's wines are still little known on the international stage, they are increasingly developing into important export goods. Virginia is still a young wine region. It was not until the late 18^th century that European immigrants planted the first vineyards here. Among them was Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers and third president of the United States.

Tasting

Innovation Grauburgunder

100 years of Bickensohl Weinvogtei

Until the 1980s, Pinot Gris was still known exclusively as Ruländer in Germany. The grapes produce mostly sweet, opulent white wines. When the demand for dry wines increased, many German winegrowers changed their harvesting strategy. They now harvested the Ruländer grapes earlier and in a healthy, botrytis-free state. In order to leave the image of the chubby Ruländer behind them, they named the grape variety Grauburgunder on their bottle labels from then on. The first Ruländer to be marketed as Grauburgunder was bottled by the Bickensohl winegrowers' cooperative.

Tasting

Valley of many cellars

Valpolicella with potential

The Valpolicella area lies east of Lake Garda and north of Verona in the Italian region of Veneto. Only red wines are produced, which are often rather light-bodied and are drunk young. However, the top wines have much more potential and can mature gracefully. A selection of wines presented by the Consorzio tutela dei vini della Valpolicella in the run-up to this year's ProWein international wine fair during a lunch at the Rossini restaurant in Düsseldorf emphasised the fact that they also make excellent accompaniments to food.

Knowledge

Warning letters for wineries

Do vineyards violate personal rights?

Marcobrunn was the first Rheingau single vineyard to appear by name on a wine label. That was 1726. But now disaster is on the horizon. On behalf of a client from Munich, the Starnberg law firm Beuger & Winkel sent warning letters to several Rheingau wineries. The reason: 38-year-old low voltage electrician Marco Brunn believes his general personal rights have been violated.

Tasting

Stylistic device reduction

Playing with the fire

Reduction occurs during fermentation as a result of a stress situation for the yeasts, primarily due to a lack of oxygen or nitrogen. It manifests itself in the wine as a sulfurous odour reminiscent of burnt matches, flint or flintstone. Reduction must be differentiated from the related mercaptan sulfurous off-flavour, which can produce unpleasant odours of rotten eggs, among other things, and is a serious wine defect. Because some reduction notes are perceived as quite pleasant, many winemakers try to bring them out in the wine.

Tasting

Better matured with screw cap

Studies prove the disadvantages of natural cork

Numerous studies by renowned research institutes from all over the world have been proving for years and decades that wines benefit just as much from a screw cap as they do from a natural cork, provided the latter is of good quality. Cork taint, tannin ingress, oxidation, runners, crumbling material, limited shelf life – the list of shortcomings of natural corks is long. Nevertheless, thanks to a deep emotional bond between winemakers and wine drinkers that cannot be explained rationally, the traditional stopper is still usually the first choice, especially for high-quality wines.

Tasting

Turning one into three

Kilian Schmitges' three-barrel experiment

Middle Mosel winemaker Kilian Schmitges from Erden embarked on an unusual experiment in autumn 2016, distributing the grapes from his best dry Riesling evenly across three different containers. What makes it special: In addition to a steel tank and an oak barrel, a granite barrel was also used. While the three wines (labelled Steel, Stone and Wood) were still very similar in the first year after bottling, they now reveal significant differences as they mature. Initially, the stainless steel version was ahead of the granite version, but with the appropriate time lag, we have a completely different ranking.

Tasting

Horn at the top

Michael Beck's best Riesling from seven vintages

The origin was and is always the same. However, the name of the wine has changed several times over the years. Marketed in 2008 as a dry Riesling Spätlese from the Stadeck Spitzberg with the additions Alte Reben and vom Pelosol, since 2015 the Im Horn vineyard has adorned the label instead of the single vineyard under wine law. Michael Beck, owner of the Beck – Hedesheimer-Hof winery in Stadecken-Elsheim in Rhine-Hesse, has been doing without the predicate and other additional information for a good ten years now. A change that is primarily due to the spirit of the times. However, this transformation has never had any influence on the wine itself, which we were able to taste from seven different vintages.

Tasting

Terra preta for the vineyard

Andreas Huppert and the black earth of the Indies

Researchers stumbled upon a mystery in the Amazon region at the end of the 19^th century. They discovered a deeply dark but extremely fertile soil that did not at all fit the natural conditions. The soils of the tropical rainforests are anything but rich in nutrients. The researchers found answers among the Indians. Already thousands of years ago, the indigenous people practised shifting cultivation with slash-and-burn methods. To improve the fertility of the soil, they mixed plant residues, composted waste, human faeces and plant charcoal. Through fermentation, this resulted in terra preta, the black earth.

Tasting

Foam from the shore of Lake Garda

Four remarkable sparkling wines from Northern Italy

Lake Garda is the largest inland lake in Italy. While it is surrounded to the north, west and east by the foothills of the Alps, which reach up to 2000 metres, the southern shore already lies in the lowlands of the Po. Three wine-growing regions border the lake, and sparkling wine production has a long tradition in all of them. We present four sparkling wines for everyday domestic use. Three rosés and one single-varietal Chardonnay. From extra dry to extra brut.

Tasting

The Wachau in motion

Stepping on the botrytis brake

For a long time, anyone looking for the best dry Rieslings in the world could hardly avoid the Wachau. Names like F. X. Pichler, Franz Hirtzberger or Emmerich Knoll filled the glossy pages of wine magazines for decades. Their Smaragd wines, grown on the slopes and steep slopes of the Danube valley between Melk and Krems, fetched top prices. They still do, but more than a few wineries in the region have recently complained about dwindling interest in their wines. The trend towards leaner, lower-alcohol wines proved incompatible with the opulent, high-alcohol and often botrytised Rieslings and Grüne Veltliners produced here. So the Wachau is a hopeless case? Not at all. For our tasting, we specifically searched for winemakers whose wines meet the contemporary desire of wine drinkers for fine, elegant white wines with a moderate alcohol content.

Tasting

90 percent Riesling

The Ruwer trumps

The vineyards in the Ruwer valley belong to the Moselle wine-growing region, which was still called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer until the law was changed in 2006. Riesling dominates the steep slopes. A proud 90 percent of the area is planted with the noble white wine grape. Nowhere else is the proportion of Riesling in the grape variety list higher. Although the filigree and subtle Rieslings from the Ruwer are very similar to those from the Moselle and Saar, they have their own distinctive character. As a result of a longer growing season and lower average temperatures compared to the Moselle Valley, the Ruwer Rieslings are much more acidic and have a pronounced green herbaceous aroma, especially in cooler years.