Dr.Deinhard/von Winning, Pfalz

Founded in 1849 by Dr.Deinhard, developed by his son-in-law Leopold von Winning in 1907, the estate was revived in 2007 by Achim Niederberger, together with the Bassermann-Jordan and von Buhl properties. Tragically Herr Niederberger died in 2013, with his wife Jana now continuing the great work.

Dr. Deinhard/von Winning estate draws on 42ha (of which 10ha are high density 9,000 plants/ha) of mainly Riesling vines among the villages of Ruppertsberg, Deidesheim, and Forst; villages that are central to the 23,000ha Pfalz region, Germany’s second warmest region (after Baden) whose 25 million yo sandstone, coral limestone and basalt soils lie on the east/southeast facing Haardt mountains, a northern extension of the Vosges, some 23km away from the river Rhine, looking across at the Black Forest; the perfect terroir then for fine dry Erste Lage and Grosses Gewächs Rieslings in particular.

Vinification takes place in a combination of barriques, big barrels and stainless-steel; the von Winning wines fermented with stalks (as per Knoll), benefitting from the phenols; free sulphur levels are a reasonable 40 mg/litre at bottling. Jana is supported by the team of: Kurt Rathgeber (head winemaker), Stephan Attmann, Andreas Hütwohl and Joachim Jaillet (vineyard manager). Their first vintage was the 2008.