Schwedhelm

Area under vine: 17 ha / 42 acres
Main grape varieties: Riesling, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau
Bottles per year: 125,000

The Schwedhelm brothers, Stephan and Georg, took over the wine estate from their parents in 2006. Stephan, the winemaker, has a degree in viticulture and oenology, while his brother Georg  graduated from business school and is now in charge of distribution and sales. Having both their own area of expertise, the two brothers perfectly complement each other and have succeeded in raising the wine quality to a whole new level. Over the past years, Stephan and Georg have steadily invested in their winery, but even more in the vineyards, as they consider them to be the fundamental basis of great distinctive wines. “Schwarzer Herrgott” and “Wotanfels” are Schwedhelm’s best sites. Just like the estate itself, both vineyards are situated in the Zellertal, known as the oldest and northernmost wine-growing commune in the Pfalz. On top of the Wotanfels, a massive eight-meter-high rock, which was in former times a Celtic place of sacrifice to their deity Wotan, dominates the surrounding landscape.

The Schwedhelm brothers are particularly proud of their soils, which are on the one hand poor in terms of water and nutrients, but on the other hand, very rich in limestone. These conditions force the vines to root more in depth, resulting in extraordinary aromatic compounds in the grapes. They produce wines characterized by hints of ripe exotic fruits, a crispy well-integrated acidity and always influenced by this certain limestone-chalky flavor. Stephan and Georg, always refraining from imitating the famous producers from the more southern Mittelhaardt, have surely developed their individual style, entering, in 2013, the VDP.Pfalz Spitzentalente program, as one of the young, upcoming wine estates of Germany.

"At the dawn of the 19th century, winegrowers from Zellertal were renowed the world over. That Grandeur is still visible in our castle-like estates, and that legacy is what we hope to reclaim!"