Our vineyards and site designations

In viticulture, the term "vineyard site" refers to the geographical location where the grapes of a wine are grown. The hierarchy of site designations and the site designations themselves are predetermined for all German wine-growing areas. The vineyards are classified in the following order:

The term "wine-growing region" was defined in wine law (German Wine Act) in 1971. In Germany, 13 growing regions were defined for quality and Prädikat wines, namely Ahr, Baden, Franken, Hessische Bergstraße, Mittelrhein, Mosel, Nahe, Pfalz, Rheingau, Rheinhessen, Saale-Unstrut, Sachsen and Württemberg.

The wine-growing region is therefore a designation of origin for quality wine for a precisely defined area.

Our vineyards around Piesport are of course located in the "Mosel" wine-growing region, which is one of the oldest wine-growing regions in Germany, as the Romans brought viticulture to the Mosel.

An "area" is a defined area within a growing region in which several large vineyards are grouped together. This is done in order to create more standardized designations for marketing.

The "Mosel" growing region consists of 6 areas, namely "Bernkastel" (also known as "Mittelmosel"), "Saar", "Obermosel", "Burg Cochem" (also known as "Terrassenmosel"), "Ruwer" and "Moseltor".

Our vineyards are located in the "Bernkastel" area, and we can proudly say that this area, with its well-known wine-growing communities and famous vineyard sites, is the heart of the region.

In Germany, the "Großlage" is the third largest unit for determining the origin of a wine and almost always refers to the combination of several individual vineyards in a growing region.

The Piesport vineyards are located in the "Michelsberg" Großlage, which, together with the 9 Piesport single vineyards, comprises a total of 37 single vineyards in the surrounding municipalities.

The smallest unit in German viticulture for determining the origin of a wine is the "single vineyard". It designates a specific vineyard area, which generally has to be 5 hectares in size. There are a total of 524 single vineyard sites in the Moselle wine-growing region (approx. 2,600 in the whole of Germany). Unlike the Großlage, the Einzellage is noted on the wine label as detailed information in conjunction with the place name, e.g. "Piesporter Goldtröpfchen".

The Piesport vineyards bear the following names and cover the areas listed below:

Treppchen	Goldtröpfchen	Falkenberg	Günterslay	Grafenberg	Domherr	Gärtchen	Kreuzwingert	Schubertslay
190 ha	65.6 ha	30.6 ha	27.4 ha	8.2 ha	4.1 ha	0.27 ha	0.09 ha	0.05 ha

Our best-known single vineyard is the "Piesporter Goldtröpfchen",

The Piesport Goldtröpfchen

World-famous, exceptional and years ahead of its competitors. This is how you could describe the birth of this unique vineyard.
The symbiosis between the vineyard and the grape variety is extraordinary, because the "original Riesling" has probably changed here over centuries of adaptation to the special characteristics of the site, one could almost say that Riesling has become Goldtröpfchen.
The first known written use of the vineyard name dates back to 1868, when a winegrower from Piesport sold a total of thirteen bottles of 1868 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen to Berlin at a price of 6 marks per bottle, according to a cellar book from 1875. This cellar book is still in the possession of a Piesport winery today.
Because the Goldtröpfchen was the only site planted exclusively with Riesling, for a long time Piesport was synonymous with Riesling and vice versa.

What are the exceptional qualities of the site?
Is it the unique location on the left bank of the Moselle, comparable to an open amphitheater and embedded in this magnificent Moselle arch, where the sun is caught from morning to evening? Or is it the blue-grey clay slate, which, together with the good water supply and the large forest water reservoir above the site, offers unique growing conditions for Riesling, especially in hot summers? Perhaps the quartz inclusions in the slate also make up the special mineral mix and characterize the unmistakable "golden droplet aroma"

And what does the Riesling from the Goldtröpfchen that has conquered the world taste like?
Ripe, fat and opulent, as we know from many top vineyards. With Goldtröpfchen, the fruit, which is often characterized by blackcurrant and a crunchy tropical fruit mix (grapefruit), is almost lean. Is it the juicy mineral tension that gives Goldtröpfchen wines this compactness?

What is the best way to describe a vineyard?
Clearly, by the wines that grow in this location. Every winegrower in Piesport has their own individual interpretation of the Goldtröpfchen. And yet all Goldtröpfchen wines cannot deny their common origin.