Rheinhessen

The region around the town of Bingen is today the least well-known part of Rheinhessen. The north-eastern limit of the growing region is Bingen itself, with its famous Scharlachberg site. Here, the Villa Sachsen estate produced some of the most impressive wines of the region in the middle of the 20th century. After a long period of producing only mediocre results, a group of investors including Michael Prinz zu Salm-Salm acquired the vineyards in 1994. The new manager, Rolf Schregel, is slowly but surely steering the estate back to its former high level of quality.
Followeing the Rhine in an easterly direction will take you to the town of Ingelheim. In days gone by, this was hailed as the mecca of red wines in Germany, but it has since lost much of its glory. Nevertheless, here and there the area can produce attractive red wines, the leading producers are the estates of J. Neus, Weidenbach and Weitzel. Julius Wasem, who used to be the leading producer in Ingelheim, is currently going through a weak phase.
A tiny area on its own is the Rheinhessische Schweiz (the Switzerland of Rheinhessen), to the east and south-east of the town of Bad Kreuznach. Here, along the former shores of the prehistoric Mainz Basin, which is no longer filled with water, the soils consist of shell limestone on a sub-soil of yellow and red sandstone. In addition, deposits of porphyry, loess, clay and even chalk are found in the soil. The climate is very similar to that of the lower and middle Nahe, and the wines are closer in style to those of Bad Kreuznach than they are to those of other Rheinhessen sub-regions. In the past few years quite a number of producers has attracted attention for their improving quality. The most important producers are Wagner-Stempel in Siefersheim and Chardonnay.W. Bernhard in Frei-Laubersheim.

(translation by Peter Gebler)