Here we share what it’s like to discover the northern part of Germany’s Rheinhessen wine region on a one-day guided tour with ‘Bottlestops’

Rheinhessen is a huge and varied wine region in Germany. It’s a region of contrasts, with beautiful rolling farmland and steep river-side slopes and a climate which supports the growing of many different German wine grapes. Rheinhessen is also one of the most progressive and exciting wine regions in Germany, with some top winemakers, producing some of the best German wines. 

We were delighted to join Jérôme Hainz for the day, founder of Bottlestops, regional wine and tasting tour specialists in Germany, to discover more about northern Rheinhessen and Rheinhessen wines. 

About the northern region of Rheinhessen Germany

Rheinhessen is a huge German wine region, with some 27,000 hectares of vineyards. The northern part of Rheinhessen is easily accessible from Frankfurt and its international airport as well as from Mainz. 

Most of the vineyards in this part of the Rheinhessen wine region are located around the towns of Bingen and Ingelheim. The vineyards around Bingen, on the opposite side of the River Rhine to the popular tourist town of Rüdesheim, are planted on steep slopes, where the quartzite slate soils produce some excellent German Rieslings. 

The vineyards around the town of Ingelheim, further away from the River Rhine, produce a variety of different Rheinhessen wines, but there is a strong tradition here for red wine, notably Pinot noir - or German Spätburgunder. In fact Ingelheim is affectionately called the ‘red wine city’.

See here for more information about the Rheinhessen wine region and Rheinhessen wines.

About Bottlestops - German wine tour specialist

Jérôme set up Bottlestops to help people discover more about Germany’s wine culture and to discover some of the best German vineyards and German wines. He does this through offering both scheduled and customised wine tours in the Rheingau, Rheinhessen and Mosel wine regions in Germany. 

The fully guided tours are designed to be relaxing, informative and fun and are conducted in luxury, spacious minibuses. The emphasis is on a fun day out, where you learn and discover lots!

Bottlestops partners with different wineries to deliver the best and most authentic experience for each regional German wine tour, all known for the quality of their wines, reflecting the grapes and traditions of the wine region.

The starting point of a scheduled Bottlestops day tour is the historic city of Mainz, the centre of German wine culture in the heart of the Rheinhessen region and the ‘wine capital of Germany’. 

Great Wine Capitals awarded BottleStops as the winner of the Best of Wine Tourism Award 2022 for “Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences” - a well deserved accolade in our opinion! 

About the Great Wine Capitals Global Network 

The Great Wine Capitals Global Network was launched in 1999 and there are now 12 international members, representing the best wine regions in the world. Each region has a ‘wine capital’ and Mainz, the state-capital of Rheinland-Pfalz and Rheinhessen, Germany’s largest wine region, have been members since 2008.

The organisation’s ‘Best Of Wine Tourism’ awards celebrate innovation and excellence in wine tourism throughout the greatest wine regions in the world. See here all of the award-winners for Mainz and Rheinhessen.

Our Bottlestops Rheinhessen German wine tour 

We met up with Jérôme in Mainz at the start of our day together, exploring the wines and wine culture of the northern part of Rheinhessen. The distinctive Bottlestops minibus wasn’t hard to find in the car park and as soon as we were settled in the fabulous leather seats, we set on our way!

Note that our day with Jérôme exploring Rheinhessen is only ‘indicative’ of the Bottlestops one-day guided tour of Rheinhessen and not necessarily the exact tour you would experience if you were to book.

During the short journey to our first stop Jérôme gave us some useful background information about the Rheinhessen wine region and the plan for the day.

Visit to Weingut Braunewell 

Our first stop was the village of Essenheim, south-west of Mainz, in the beautiful Seltz Valley or ‘Seltztal’ and the family-run winery, Weingut Braunewell. Our first impression when we arrived was what an amazing, modern building, with a large, comfortable tasting area looking out over a terrace and the vineyards.

The family has been cultivating vines here since 1655 and vines have been grown here since Roman times. Today 4 generations live and work at the winery. 

The 3 single vineyard sites around Essenheim - ‘Klopp’, ‘Teufelspfad’ and ‘Blume’ are based on mainly limestone soils covering approximately 30 hectares. Braunewell produces a large range of wines, from the Riesling and Burgundy grape varieties and is also well known for its German sparkling wines - or sekt. 

Braunewell received a Great Wine Capitals ‘Best of Wine Tourism’ award in 2022 and they absolutely welcome and encourage visitors for wine tastings and winery and cellar tours here. 

We enjoyed a wonderful wine tasting at Weingut Braunewell and loved their wines - especially the sekt! Stefan Braunewell then took the time to take us on a tour around the winery and the cellars, which was most impressive. Great winery, great wines and incredibly friendly welcome!

Visit to Weingut Thörle

Following our excellent visit to Weingut Braunewell in Essenheim we continued south, through the beautiful rolling hills, vineyards and farmland to the village of Saulheim and Weingut Thörle.

Weingut Thörle lies in the middle of the Saulheim vineyards, an incredibly modern and impressive winery and visitor centre, which was opened in 2019. The Thörle estate dates back to the sixteenth century and today the winery is run by brothers Johannes and Christoph Thörle, having taken over from their parents in 2006. 

After significant investment and hard work in the vineyards, the brothers are now highly respected for their achievements and are seen as key contributors to the huge advances in quality and innovation seen in Rheinhessen wines over the last decade.  

The Thörle estate is certified organic today (from 2022 vintage) and comprises approximately 30 hectares of vineyards. There are 3 top single vineyard/grand cru sites, ‘Hölle’, ‘Schlossberg’ and ‘Probstey’.  Thörle wines are based on classic grape varieties Riesling, Pinot noir, white Burgundy varieties and Silvaner.

We enjoyed an excellent wine tasting at Weingut Thörle in the fabulous tasting room overlooking the vineyards. We especially loved the 2022 Weissburgunder/Pinot blanc, the 2021 Saulheim Riesling Kalkstein and the 2022 Chardonnay.

After being awarded a Great Wine Capitals ‘Best of Wine Tourism’ award for ‘design and architecture’, Weingut Thörle was recognised with the ‘Global Winner’ award for excellence. 

These are top wines and the setting is glorious.

Lunch at Landgasthof Engel

Following our visit to Weingut Thörle, Jérôme took us to a lovely country guest house in the village of Schwabenheim, called Landgasthof Engel. 

We were certainly ready for a bite to eat - all this wine tasting makes you hungry! We were delighted to be eating at Landgasthof Engel as we had dined there a few years before and had loved the traditional, rustic food here and the lovely historic setting. 

Visit to Weingut J. Neus

After an excellent lunch break we continued our Rheinhessen tour by heading on to the wine town of Ingelheim, known for its Burgundy and especially Pinot noir red wines. Here we visited Weingut J. Neus, an excellent example of a Pinot noir wine producer.

Weingut J. Neus was established in 1881 by founder Josef Neus Senior, who right from the start, set about producing the highest quality level of Pinot noir. This continues today, with a clear focus on producing only Pinot noir wines (80%) and also Chardonnay (20%).

Old craftsmanship is still followed today, with traditional mash fermentation by hand and storage of the wine in large wooden barrels for at least 12 months until it’s drawn from the barrel unfiltered. 

Weingut J. Neus farms about 13.5 hectares, producing very small yields to ensure top quality fruit/wines and the Pinot noir vines are based on the winery’s own clones. The collection of wines includes highly distinctive wines from two qualified single vineyard/grand cru sites - ‘Horn’ and ‘Pares’. 

After enjoying a wine tasting we had the opportunity to visit the incredible, vast cellars, which were built under the house in the late nineteenth century and today are the largest vaulted cellars in Rheinhessen. 

Weingut J. Neus is no longer family-owned - it was purchased by investors over ten years ago - however the family ‘Pinot noir’ tradition endures. Visitors today can experience the original winery buildings and cellars as well as the modern shop and wine tasting room. 

Very distinctive wines and loved the historic wine cellars!

Visit to Ingelheimer Winzerkeller

The final visit - and an excellent way to finish a great day - was to spend an hour in the Ingelheimer Winzerkeller in the centre of Ingelheim.

This historic building used to be the wine cooperative and today it offers the visitors a superb introduction to Rheinhessen wine culture and Rheinhessen wines.

You can visit the cellars, browse the wines and gifts in the shop, enjoy a bite to eat in the restaurant, visit the tourist office based here and - of course - taste the wines!  The Ingelheimer Winzerkeller is also a Great Wine Capitals ‘Best of Tourism’ award winner.

It’s a beautiful building and the views outside are stunning. What better way to end our Bottlestops Rheinhessen wine tour than to relax outside, enjoy the views across Rheinhessen and taste 3 fabulous Rheinhessen wines!

Conclusion - our personal highlights

Before our day with Jérôme we had spent time in northern Rheinhessen, especially visiting one of our favourite wineries, Weingut Beck, from whom we used to import wines, but we had not had the opportunity to explore it much further. Our discovery day, experiencing a Bottlestops German wine tour in this lovely region has helped us to discover and learn so much more, about the people, the land, the wines, the traditions….

We had a hugely enjoyable day and really appreciated Jérôme’s knowledge and of course his relationships with the wineries and winemakers. We can highly recommend a one day guided tour of Rheinhessen with Bottlestops - click here to find out more!

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