Location and History
The vineyard Schloßberg is located in Ickelheim, a district of Bad Windsheim in Franconia, on the edge of the Frankenhöhe. The documented plot is on a steep, sunny south-facing slope. The Schloßberg is mentioned in a Bavarian cultural landscape inventory in connection with the time of Charlemagne. The vineyard area was laid out around 1930 and is associated with the holdings of the Heinlein family.
Vineyard Area and Cultivation
The approximately 1,800 square-metre parcel is an unredeemed, old vineyard with stake training. Planted at around one vine stock per square metre, it is worked by hand due to the close planting and the steep slope. The sunny and warm site provides habitat for vine-loving vineyard flora and fauna.
Varieties and Wine Making
The mixed planting includes Bacchus, Grünen, Yellow and Blue Silvaner, White Elbling, Yellow and Red Muscateller, White Riesling, Red Traminer, Adelfränkisch, White Lagler, White Heunisch, Müller-Thurgau, Tauberschwarz, Rotholzigen Trollinger, Blue Portugieser and Spätburgunder. Some of the vines are unspecified.
An old Franconian mixed blend is produced from the grapes picked together. The grapes are harvested on the same day, pressed together and matured in the same cask, rather than labelling the wine by individual grape varieties.
Care
Volunteers from Slow Food have been cultivating the vineyard since 2014. Since 2017 it has been farmed organically, above all with compost and biologically based plant protection products.
