Wine Estate Facts
Region: Rheinhessen
Owner: Klaus Wehrheim
Estate Size: 12.5 hectares/32 acres
Production: 8,000 cases
Grapes:
- White: 40% Riesling, 20% Gewürztraminer, 13% Silvaner, 10% Müller Thurgau , 17% Other white varietals including: Faberrebe, Kerner, Morio-Muskat, Grauburgunder and Scheurebe
- Red: Cabernet Dorsa, Cabernet Mitos, Dornfelder, Portugieser and Spätburgunder
Vineyards: Holdings in the most important vineyards of Nierstein including: Brückchen, Paterberg, Orbel, Oelberg, Hipping and Pettental.
Nackenheim: Engelsberg
Website: http://www.weingut-eugen-wehrheim.de/ (In German)
Estate
Wine growing has been a part of the Wehrheim family since 1693. Klaus Wehrheim is the 11th generation of winegrowers. The estate still uses a plethora of oak wood caskets or barrels for aging the wine in a vaulted cellar from the middle ages. In 1818 Klaus’s great, great, great grandfather, as a young man, was a whale fisher, and he used the money he earned from whaling to buy a vineyard. Today the vineyard is still called “The Walfisch Wingert” or “ The Whale Vineyard” His great, great grandfather, Johann Wehrheim, in 1918 founded the “Vereinigung Niersteiner Weingutsbesitzer” This was a very successful group that auctioned off their wine. In addition, the Wehrheim winery is listed as one of the top hundred wineries by the German national winery competition.
The Vineyards
12.5 Hectares (32 acres)
The soil type varies widely-sandstone, clay, sandy loam and limestone.
Most vineyards are on an incline and some parts of the vineyard are so steep that the grapes have to be harvested by hand.
After careful soil analysis fertilization is done using organic fertilizer.
Instead of using herbicides, weeds are controlled by a mechanical method and using hand cultivation.
The so-called integrated plant protection system may be cheaper, but it reduces the yield.
