Hochheim am Main: German vintner shares thoughts on 'wine growing'
Climate in southwest Germany are ideal for producing grapes
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You can’t find wine this good just anywhere.
Germany is world-renowned for white wines, especially Rieslings. The fertile, granular soil, temperate climate and long hours of summer daylight in Germany’s southwestern regions are ideal for growing the grapes for these elegant, aromatic varietals.
It is less commonly known, however, that some of these historic vineyards welcome visitors for tours, wine tastings and occasional special events. In fact, during a recent afternoon jaunt to Hochheim am Main, near Wiesbaden, I learned this directly from the proprietor of the Domdechant Werner estate, Dr. Franz Werner Michel.
Michel might know wine as well as anyone can. As a seventh-generation proprietor of his vineyards, owned and operated by the same family since 1780, Michel’s roots extend deep into the chalky Hochheim soil. During our late-afternoon interview in the manor’s tea parlor, Michel and I discussed wine and grapes over tea and biscuits. As he spoke to me of his family’s vineyards, the history of the town and of his family, his eyes shone with energy and enthusiasm.
“I much prefer to call what we do ‘wine growing,’ not wine production,” he said, implicating an intimate connection to all stages of making wine, from tilling the earth to aging in casks.
And this care has not gone unnoticed. The wines have received high praise from publications such as Wine Spectator and are included in some of the more prestigious expos across the globe, including the annual New York Wine Expo in February and the Vinexpo Hong Kong in May. The Rieslings are exported to more than 15 countries, including the United States, and served in restaurants abroad and domestically, the closest of which, he said, “is the Hochheimer Hof right across the street.”
Michel surely considers the accolades important, but he scarcely gave them more than a passing mention during our conversation. Although he holds a doctorate in national economy and banking, he had all the earmarks of an involved historian, and spoke at length about the history of the vineyards and Hochheim. He related how in 1780 his distant ancestor, dean of the Cathedral of Mainz, was awarded the wine estate for having saved the cathedral from destruction during the French Revolution.
Another point of interest in which Michel seems to take particular pride was the visit of American president Thomas Jefferson to Hochheim. Picking up a glossy, hardback copy of John Hailman’s “Thomas Jefferson on Wine,” Michel read aloud various passages from Jefferson’s notes about Hochheim and its wines, which Jefferson found most enjoyable. “Though they begin to make wine, as has been said, at Cologne, and continue it up the river indefinitely, yet it is only from Rüdesheim to Hocheim that wines of the very first quality are made,” Jefferson mused.
Jefferson was one of our nation’s more influential and celebrated leaders, and, along with the other Founding Fathers, worked the philosophical soil in which the United States grew. But the third president’s interests reached far beyond the abstractions of philosophy and politics and flowered in numerous areas of science, including horticulture.
Jefferson loved well-crafted wines, and as he traveled central and southwestern Germany, his main objective was to visit vineyards and sample their wines. In April 1788, Jefferson spent two weeks touring the wine country of the Rhineland Palatinate, making stops at vineyards in Eberbach, Hattenheim, Rüdesheim and Hochheim and praising each avidly. Jefferson was so favorably impressed with the last two locales that he purchased vine clippings from each to take with him.
In present-day Germany, more than 200 years later, some facets of the Rhineland culture remain largely untouched. The delicate care given to “wine growing” is one of them. During Jefferson’s stay in Hochheim, he wrote that the spot where the best wine was made “is the hillside from the church down to the plain, a gentle slope of about a quarter of a mile wide, and extending about half a mile toward Mayence. It is of southwestern aspect.”
Today, these same gentle slopes, creased with rows of lush, fragile grapevines, still give life to some of the world’s finest Rieslings.
Michel loves wine culture, and in a very real way embodies it. He believes the enjoyment of wines can be a meeting place between Americans in Germany and the people of Hochheim. Neither formal education on wine nor years of careful experience is necessary to enjoy it.
But a little advice from a wine master such as Michel can’t hurt either, especially for beginners.
“Make it simple,” he says, “and enjoy what you personally like. Do not listen to ‘wine gurus’ who want to dictate what is permitted to drink.”
If you follow this advice, most likely you’ll have an experience worth writing home about.
Byron Warner is a military spouse in Baumholder, Germany, and a doctoral student of Romance languages at the University of Georgia. E-mail him at joeywarn@uga.edu.
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