Location and municipality
Gau-Bischofsheim is a municipality in the wine region Rheinhessen on the southern outskirts of Mainz. The municipal area covers 2.84 km²; 70 percent of the land is used for agriculture and for winegrowing.
Winegrowing and history
Winegrowing has been carried out in Gau-Bischofsheim for centuries. Historically, the village depended above all on winegrowing. Gau-Bischofsheim was first mentioned in a document in 769. Earlier, church-related institutions in Mainz owned vineyards there and other landholdings.
Individual vineyard sites
The official register of vineyard sites lists the individual sites Glockenberg with 17.5 hectares, Herrnberg with 23.2 hectares, Kellersberg with 28.2 hectares and Pfaffenweg with 7.5 hectares in the district of Gau-Bischofsheim. They are assigned to the grand cru site Sankt Alban in the Nierstein area.
Landscape, soils and grape varieties
The Glockenberg lies on a hilltop; from the Glockenberghütte at the summit, the view extends over the Rheinhessen hills, the Rhine, the Taunus and the Odenwald. The soil there consists of calcareous loess. The hillside plots of the Herrnberg adjoin the village and contain loess as well as marl-pararendzina. In the Kellersberg, marl-pararendzina and calcareous loams and sands shape the soils. The Pfaffenweg is gently sloping towards the south and is predominantly characterised by loess. For the Glockenberg, Riesling, Silvaner, Weissburgunder, Grauburgunder and Spätburgunder are documented; in the Pfaffenweg, Riesling and Chardonnay are planted, and in the Kellersberg, among others, Dornfelder, Bacchus, Müller-Thurgau, Grauburgunder, Silvaner and Riesling.
