Baden

The decomposed granite soils of the Ortenau sub-region provide ideal conditions for the production of first-class Rieslings. Scheurebe as well as the Burgundian varieties too can produce excellent results here, although they tend to be a little leaner and more racy than those of the Breisgau and Kaiserstuhl regions, which lie to the south.
Among the best vineyard sites in the area are the Mauerberg and Schlossberg in Neuweier – the latter is owned exclusively by Schloss Neuweier, the leading producer in the northern Ortenau region. The steep south- to south-westerly facing slopes bring forth exceptionally racy wines with tremendous maturation potential. The Schlossberg has a soil rich in porphyry, and the Rieslings from this site always show a little more structure and spice than do those of the Mauerberg. Schloss Neuweier regularly manages to produce outstanding wines from both sites.
The Gut Nägelsförst estate, too, produces excellent Riesling on the Mauerberg site, although this producer has internal competition from two other top-class sites: the Umweger Stich den Buben, where the granite is covered by loess, and the Varnhalter Klosterbergfelsen, which has a high slate content. The vineyard-designated wines here often have an even more pronounced acid backbone than do thos of Schloss Neuweier, and need time to develop their potential.
A stronghold of Riesling in the region is Durbach, not far from Offenbach in the foothills of the Black Forest. Here a large number of producers vies for the honour of being the best in the region. For a number of years now this crown has been firmly in the hands of Andreas Laible. Unfortunately the new wine law of 1971 resulted in a considerable expansion of some of the best vineyard sites. This means that the Plauelrain, Schloss Grohl and Schlossberg sites no longer consist exclusively of excellent, steep south-faciing slopes, but now include some north-facing parcels that cannot possibly produce wine of the same high quality as the original heart of the sites. A truly bizarre situation.
The best sections of these sites, however, produce superb Rieslings, with bright fruit and firm structure, combining power and finesse in a unique manner. The Ölberg, Steinberg and Kapellenberg sites also have the potential to produce this quality. Apart from Andreas Laible, very convincing wines are produced regularly by Gräflich Wolf Metternich'sche Domäne, Heinrich Männle and even the Durbacher Winzergenossenschaft co-operative.
To the south-west of Durbach, between Zell-Weierbach and Ortenberg, you will find quite a number of additional sites with the potential to produce first-class Ortenau wines. Without any doubt the best wines are grown on the Zell-Weierbacher Abtsberg as well as on the extremely steep, terraced Ortenberger Schlossberg. The wines produced by the Schloss Ortenberg winery from these two sites can be outstanding.
Reallygood red wines are rare in the Ortenau region. Nevertheless, one of the leading Pinot Noir producers is to be found here: Jakob Duijn in Bühl-Kappelwindeck, who hails from the Netherlands, became a wine producer only late in life, but has quickly made his mark, and is firmly established in the group of top producers.

(translation by Peter Gebler)