Rheinhessen

The German Wine Institute says wine has been grown on this left bank of the Rhine since the Romans, and that the oldest document about a German vineyard site concerns the Niersteiner Glöck. It names Rheinhessen as the birthplace of Liebfraumilch, a soft white blend first made from the vineyards around the Liebfrauenkirche in Worms, and credits Professor Georg Scheu, after whom Scheurebe is named, with breeding many of Germany's aromatic, early-ripening crossings here.

Rheinhessen estates were among the four groups that founded the forerunner of the VDP in 1910. After the 1971 wine law ended the auctions of "natural wine", the Rheinhessische Weinbörse was set up in Mainz in 1974; as the Mainzer Weinbörse it is held at the end of April. The institute dates the Selection Rheinhessen, a class of dry wines, to the 1990s, and says the area of red grapes more than doubled within a decade, mainly with Dornfelder.

The specification says the region almost matches the Rheinhessen plateau-and-hill country, or Mainz Basin. Plateaus of resistant limestone at 250–300 m are cut by broad valleys with gentle hills and lowlands at 100–150 m. Vines grow on the slopes, but the average gradient is about 7%; steep sites are found mainly around Nierstein and at Bingen. Vineyards lie at about 175 m on average and face south-east to south-west.

Tertiary and Quaternary sediments rest on a base of Rotliegend, which reaches the surface only in the far south-west and at Nierstein, the Niersteiner Horst. Tertiary limestones form the plateaus, mostly under loess; softer Tertiary marls form the slopes and lowlands, veiled by loess, slope deposits or river sediments. Near Bingen, Devonian quartzites and slates appear. Loess is the main parent material of the soils. The mean temperature is about 9.9 °C, 14.6 °C in the growing season, and about 550 mm of rain falls. The German Wine Institute adds that hills and forests surround and shelter the region.

The specification says the many weathered soils give the region's wide range of grapes their character. White wines show clear fruit of apple, peach and grapefruit, exotic notes of passion fruit and pineapple, and in some cases muscat and rose. A modern, balanced acid-sugar ratio makes them lively, and more than half are made dry or halbtrocken. Red wines, depending on variety, show cassis, blackberry, cherry and strawberry; they are full-bodied with soft acidity but a marked tannin structure that needs some time to mature. Rosé is pressed light from red grapes and is fresher, with less alcohol and tannin.

Rheinhessen is a protected designation of origin for Qualitätswein, Prädikatswein, Sekt b.A. and Qualitätsperlwein b.A., and its wines may be used for Crémant. The 2011 technical file sets a maximum yield of 105 hl/ha. Minimum must weights for Qualitätswein are 60° Oechsle for Riesling, Portugieser and Morio-Muskat, 68° for Dornfelder and 62° for other grapes. Kabinett needs 73° for Müller-Thurgau, Riesling and Silvaner, Spätlese 85° for Riesling and Silvaner (90° otherwise), Auslese 92° for Riesling, 95° for Silvaner and 100° otherwise, Beerenauslese and Eiswein 120° and Trockenbeerenauslese 150°.

The German Wine Institute gives 27,312 ha in three districts and, for 2022, 74% white grapes: Riesling 19.4%, Müller-Thurgau 14.3%, Dornfelder 11.3%, Pinot Gris 8.5%, Silvaner 7.1% and Pinot Noir 5.5%. It calls the region the world's largest Silvaner area. About half the wine is sold under a few collective-site names such as Niersteiner Gutes Domtal.