Schloss Sommerhausen
Sommerhausen • Germany
Image: Derzno via Wikipedia, published under the licence Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (size and cropping adjusted)Schloss Sommerhausen
Hauptstraße 25
97286 Sommerhausen
Germany
Phone: +49 9333 260
Fax: +49 9333 1488
Internet: www.sommerhausen.com
E‑mail: info@sommerhausen.com
With the construction of a “magnificent cellar” in 1435, Schenk Konrad von Limpurg laid the foundation for today's winery. Since the 18th century, it has been managed by the Steinmann family, who acquired Schloss Sommerhausen in 1968. In 2016, Icho Graf von Rechteren Limpurg Speckfeld bought back the ancestral castle to use it as a residence for his family. The winery remained in the possession of the Steinmann family.
Since the 1980s, sparkling wine production has become increasingly important for the Steinmanns. In 1990, the parents of the current owner, Martin Steinmann, began building up their own sparkling wine production with the support of Volker Raumland. Today, over 30 percent of the annual harvest is used for sparkling wine production. Martin Steinmann attaches great importance to the fact that he only processes his own grapes and that all sparkling wines are produced using traditional bottle fermentation. The sparkling wine bottles are stored in the winery's ageing cellar, which was built in 1435. Schloss Sommerhausen is now one of the best German sparkling wine producers.
In 1964, Johann Kaspar Steinmann rediscovered the Blauer Silvaner in Sommerhausen Steinbach. The blue-skinned variety of Grüner Silvaner was thought to be extinct at that time. Through selection, he laid the foundation for the reintroduction of the grape variety, which is now cultivated again by several renowned wineries in Franconia.
The Alttenberg 1172 vineyard is considered the winery's best location, covering large parts of the middle belt and some areas in the upper belt of the Steinbach and Mönchsleite single vineyards between Eibelstadt and Sommerhausen. The soil there consists of block limestone, which was formed in the Triassic period and consists of layered limestone from the fossils of dead marine animals.
Martin Steinmann has a penchant for rare grape varieties and produces wines from the Bouquet grape and Gelber Orleans.
The wines at a glance
2015 “Le Grand Blanc” “avec pläsier” Schaumwein brut nature
Germany
Lot number 3168/011/20 • 12.5 % vol alcohol
2012 “Le Grand Riesling” “avec pläsier” Schaumwein brut
Germany
Lot number 3168520 • 12.5 % vol alcohol
Blanc de Blancs “avec pläsier” Schaumwein brut
Germany
Lot number 3168390521 • 12.5 % vol alcohol
“Rosé de Saignée” “avec pläsier” Schaumwein brut
Germany
Lot number 3168/9/20 • 12.5 % vol alcohol
Symbols
| 🯅 | The rating of the wine is based on a single taster. The taster is named in the context of the rating. The tasting was either open or blind. In case of a blind tasting, it is explicitly labelled as such. |
| 🯅🯅 | The rating of the wine is based on two tasters. The tasters are named in the context of the rating. The tasting was carried out according to the four-eyes principle, in which both tasters agree on a joint rating. |
| 🯅🯅🯅 | The rating is based on a tasting by our jury and indicates the Mean value calculated by us from the individual ratings of the tasters. Our mean value is based on the median. |
| ⚖ | The wine was evaluated in a blind tasting. We have strict rules for blind tastings. The tasters do not receive any information that would allow them to identify the wines. The tasters are only given access to further information that goes beyond the subject matter if it is absolutely necessary for understanding the wines. |
| 🕓 | We only had limited time to taste the wine - typically during an open tasting event, such as a wine fair. It was therefore not possible to observe the development of the wine in the glass over a longer period of time. The informative value of our rating may therefore be limited under certain circumstances. |
| ⛬ | The wine was tasted as a barrel sample or before an official test number (Amtliche Prüfungsnummer or Staatliche Prüfnummer) was issued. We only accept samples of unfilled wines in exceptional cases, and then only if we can assume sufficient stability in the bottle for a period of at least three months. |
| ▲ | During our tasting, the wine showed conspicuous sensory characteristics. This does not necessarily have to be a wine fault. We categorise the quality and quantity of the abnormality and include it in the rating. Wine faults such as cork taint or an atypical ageing generally lead to a complete rejection. |
| Tastings that refer to the same bottle of a wine are visually summarised by a dotted line. |