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German wine estate in the Rheingau with a history closely interlinked with that of the entire region. Around the year 1100, the Benedictine monks of Mainz built a monastery on the site, the first in the Rheingau. In 1130 the hill, monastery, and village were renamed Johannisberg after St John the Baptist. In 1716 the abbey was purchased by Konstantin von Buttlar, the prince-abbot of Fulda. Neglected vineyards were restored and planted, in particular with the Riesling grape, an important and innovative move which eventually led to the variety's being known in some parts of the world (notably modern California) as Johannisberg Riesling. Legend has it that Schloss Johannisberg played an important role in the discovery of botrytized wines. Grapes affected by noble rot were first harvested at Johannisberg unwittingly, leading the administrator to record on 10 April 1776: `I have never tasted such a wine before.' The discovery gave rise to the Auslese, Beerenauslese, and Trockenbeerenauslese styles. In 1802 Johannisberg became secularized and the property of the prince of Orange. It was won four years later by Napoleon, who presented it to Marshal Kellerman, duke of Valmy, who owned it until 1813. From 1813 to 1815 the property was administered by the allies Russia, Prussia, and Austria; it was then given to the Habsburg Emperor Francis I of Austria at the Vienna Congress. In 1816, the emperor presented it to his State Chancellor Clemens Wenzeslaus, prince of Metternich-Winneburg, a gift which entailed an obligation to pay an annual tithe of the harvest to the Habsburgs or their legal successors. Today Schloss Johannisberg belongs to the Austrian state chancellor's great-grandson, Prince Paul Alfons of Metternich-Winneburg.
In 1811 Peter Arnold Mumm, a successful banker and wine merchant, purchased the entire Schloss Johannisberg vintage for 32,000 florins. He made a healthy profit and decided to invest in the estate. Ever since there has been a close association between the Mumm wine estate and Schloss Johannisberg and today they are run in tandem under the same ownership, with the wine of both estates made at von Mumm's cellars and the administration based at Schloss Johannisberg. Of von Mumm's 59 ha/145 acres of vineyards, 83 per cent are planted with Riesling and the remainder with Pinot Noir. Of the seven vineyard sites belonging to Johannisberg, three are almost totally owned by the von Mumm estate, Schwarzenstein, Hansenberg, and Mittelholle, while they also own a sizeable share of the remaining four: Holle, Klaus, Goldatzel, and Vogelsang. In addition, the estate owns the Berg Schlossberg, Rottland, and Roseneck vineyards in Rudesheim; the Klauserweg in Geisenheim; and the Hollenberg, Hinterkirch, and Frankenthal in Assmannshausen. The vineyards of Schloss Johannisberg itself cover an area of 86 acres, and are planted entirely to Riesling but were not ranked among Germany's finest in the late 1980s and early 1990s. See also German history. References Auslese Beerenauslese botrytized German history noble rot Rheingau Trockenbeerenauslese
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