Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg'sche Domäne, Schloss Johannisberg

Christian Witte

World-famous winery based in the eponymous castle on the famous Johannisberg in the Rheingau . At Johannisberg allegedly had been Charlemagne (742-814) for the first time create a vineyard. Built between 1096 and 1100 Benedictine from Mainz on the plateau above the village of Bishop's Johannisberg monastery and operated vineyards. The Basilica of " John the Baptist "was inaugurated in 1130 and gave the name of the monastery and church. In the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the monastery was destroyed large parts of the vineyard. The Abbot of Fulda Buttlar of Constantine (1679-1726) bought in 1716 the Elector of Mainz Bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn (1655-1729) from the remains of 75 392 guilders, had the building torn down and there erect a three-wing, baroque castle building as a summer residence. A huge basement with a total length of 250 meters was built in 1721 in the old cellar.

At that time it was customary in the Rheingau, the vineyards in the Mixed Set to restock, including the old varieties were Elbling and Orléans (grape) . The Abbot was torn out in 1720 on the south side of the Rhine and the mixed record with Riesling restock. This contributed to the popularity and proliferation, also known as "Johannisberg Riesling" variety. Cuttings from Johannisberg were in demand in all continents, and many a vine in Australia, South Africa and the United States comes from here. During the Napoleonic wars of the Rheingau region was occupied by the French and secularized in 1806, the castle plus vineyards. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) donated the estate to his Marshal François-Étienne-Christophe Kellermann (1735-1820), Duke of Valmy. He sold the entire crop of the famous vintage 1811er Mumm at Gottlieb (1782-1852), resulting in today's estate GH Mumm justified.

The German poet Heinrich Heine and wine enthusiast (1797-1856) wrote downright enthusiastic about the Johannisberg: "Mon Dieu, if I had so much faith in me that I could remove mountains, the Johannisberg would be just the mountain, which I everywhere could meet. " Many other famous people loved the Johannisberg wine, including Johann Wolfgang von Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), the one on his 66th Johannisberg Riesling birthday, a Cabinet proffered the vintage 1748, the author of the famous novel "Leatherstocking Tales" James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) and the German Emperor Wilhelm II (1859-1941). Goethe visited the Schloss Johannisberg in 1814 and wrote: "The Johannisberg towers over everything. The magnates have no rank is under dispute. Hochheimer, Johannisberg and Rudesheim accept each other, only the gods of lower rank jealousy and envy there. "

In a letter Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who later became U.S. president, after a trip to the Rhine in 1788: "Interrupt your trip to Rudesheim and the monastery of Johannisberg, in order to examine the vineyards and wines, the latter is the best that is manufactured on the Rhine, he is incomparable and will cost about the same as the oldest Hochheimer. The vintage 1775 is the best. " In the same year took place on the famous story of the Johannisberg Spätlesereiter , which expresses a sculpture in the courtyard. From 1788 were all born between bottled and prepared detailed lists of origin bottling, bottle capacity and price. The monks began to read more selectively and systematically to produce Spätlese and Auslese. According to legend, was founded in 1858, the first Icewine produced in history.

After the Battle of Leipzig of 16 to 19 October 1813 and the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte was the property from 1813 to 1815 under the joint administration of Austria, Prussia and Russia. In the course of the negotiations at the Vienna Congress (1814-1815) it came into possession of the Austrian Emperor Francis I (1768-1835), who turn to the Prince Klemens Wenzel Lothar Metternich, Count Rademacher (1773-1859) for his contributions to European peace on the condition presented, that the Habsburg family, or their successors should yearly pay a tithe on earnings. This agreement holds true even today and is the beneficiary of the Republic of Austria. In 1942 the palace was bombed and almost completely destroyed. The great-grandson of Chancellor Metternich Paul Alfons built it to 1965 again to its former glory. Owner of the winery is the "Prince of Metternich-Winneburg'sche domain Schloss Johannisberg GbR". Manager and winemaker is Christian Witte are Hans Kessler and Gerd Ritter (which, incidentally, also located in the vicinity of the winery GH Mumm are responsible). End of 2001 was held at Schloss Johannisberg, the 900-year anniversary of the winery under the presence of numerous celebrities.

The vineyards cover 35 hectares of vineyards in the monopoly-owned vineyard Schloss Johannisberg, which extends below the castle in an altitude 114-182 meters with 10 to 45% slope. Schloss Johannisberg is a separate administrative district of Geisenheim, which gives the wine law of 1971 the right to use the location name without place name on the bottle label. The floors are made of stony loess and clay with quartz Taunus underground. Passes exactly through this vineyard as a geographic feature of the 50th Latitude, which is so commonly as the northern limit for commercial vineyards. The excellent micro climate allows, however, that here too ripe figs, almonds and lemon.

After a whole bunch pressing, the wines are fermented slowly and coldly. Colors indicate the levels of quality. These are yellow for quality wine, red for Cabinet, green for late harvest, pink for reading, rose-gold for Beerenauslese, gold for Trockenbeerenauslese and blue for ice wine. As Century wine is the ice of 1996 refers to the 26 December was read early in the morning in the freezing cold and had 180 ° Oechsle must weight and 18.9 per mil acid. Every year approximately 260,000 bottles of wine are produced. Johannisberg Riesling from base wines will be exclusively the cult brand "Prince Metternich" produced, see the detailed history with little son .