Location and classification
Hummelberg is a named vineyard site in Kenzingen in the wine-growing region Baden. Documented references assign the site to the Bombach area. Following the historic amalgamation of local vineyard names, Hummelberg is documented as a single-site vineyard within Kenzingen.
Relief and soils
The wine-growing area consists of vineyard slopes that were newly designed and developed through land consolidation measures from 1970 to 1977. In the Hummelberg–Blosenberg area, Lower Muschelkalk occurs, with layers of limestone, calcareous fine sandstone and clay slate, and above it Middle Muschelkalk with clay and marl. As a result of the terrain design, loess is locally added. For individual plots, deep-rooting loess-clay soils and soils of loess, loess-clay, calcareous marl and Muschelkalk are documented.
Development of the vineyards
The land consolidation from 1970 to 1977, together with Blosenberg, shaped the current wine-growing landscape. Around 160 hectares of previously fragmented terrain were converted into intensively managed vineyard areas, and roughly five million cubic metres of earth were moved. From 1,460 previously poorly developed plots, 543 plots were created, with about 20 kilometres of paved paths. A Hummelberg wine festival in the Bombach area has been documented since 1978.
Grape varieties and winemaking
Historically, Riesling and Müller-Thurgau are attested as Hummelberg wines from the vicinity of the Kenzingen winegrowers’ cooperative. Spätburgunder is documented from the wineries Dr. Benz and Jägle from Hummelberg. A Spätburgunder from the 2022 vintage is specified as a dry red wine and Badischer Landwein. For this wine, traditional must fermentation, fermentation with natural yeasts, and several months of bottle ageing are described. For Hummelberg wines from Weingut Jägle, for white wines cool fermentation and biological acid reduction are documented, and for red wines must fermentation and ageing in large or small wooden barrels.
