“A new chapter”

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. After all, they have always been tradition-conscious here. 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 sudden break.

Consequently, Christoph Eifel himself only speaks of a “new chapter” – and not a new book – that he has opened. However, the first vintages under his direction have been very successful and have already earned him numerous awards.

While other grape varieties are playing an increasingly important role in other wineries on the Moselle, at Christoph Eifel you will still find almost exclusively Riesling, traditionally from dry to noble sweet, from quality wine to ice wine and Trockenbeerenauslese. Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris only play a supporting role. There is no special focus on dry Rieslings here, as is now common even in the northern Moselle wine-growing region.

We tasted a selection of Rieslings from the 2023 vintage. Among the wines, the “Schiefergestein” undoubtedly deserves special attention. Although it is nominally an estate wine, it is in fact a single-vineyard wine, even one from 60-year-old vines from the still undervalued Neumagen Rosengärtchen. Here, the minerality penetrates the sense of flavour particularly intensely.

While the “Schiefergestein” is already quite accessible today, the Riesling from the Piesport Goldtröpfchen is still a little tight-lipped, even though the character of the single vineyard is already very evident. Although it does not reveal itself to be uncompromisingly dry in sensory terms, it really is.

In general, the analysis values. During our tasting, we once again came to the realisation that these can often deviate enormously from the taste perception. This has a lot to do with the individual vineyards, and this was particularly evident in the three Kabinett Rieslings.

Although the representative from the Trittenheim Apotheke, also the lightest in the group with only 7.5 % alcohol, appears somewhat sweeter than its counterparts from the Dhron Hofberg and the Piesport Goldtröpfchen, it is the one with the lowest sugar content.

Christoph Eifel's signature is recognisable, focusing on filigree and elegance as well as expression, without negating the natural fruit flavours. Perhaps this signature is therefore somewhat reminiscent of Hans Günter Schwarz's philosophy of transferring the flavours of the grapes into the wine as unadulterated as possible.

It is therefore anything but surprising that the Dhron Hofberg Kabinett has both its own vibrant minerality and typical fine passion fruit flavours. We consider it to be the most exciting of the three Kabinett wines, not least because of its play of flavours.

The third Kabinett in the group, from the Piesport Goldtröpfchen, is a juicy Riesling whose fullness of fruit clearly reflects its origin.

The very succeeded off-dry Kabinett from the Trittenheim Apotheke will certainly improve with maturity and integrate the sweetness even better into the flavour.