Nonnenberg 2020

Nonnenberg is a single vineyard in Rauenthal in the Rheingau. The officially listed wine-growing area comprises 5.6 hectares and is planted exclusively with Riesling.

The site is on a steep slope facing south. Its deep, stony phyllite soils are supplemented in the lower part of the slope by loess and clay.

The Georg Breuer winery owns Nonnenberg entirely. According to the producer, some of the vines are more than 70 years old. The name refers to nuns of the Abbey of Tiefenthal, who previously owned and cultivated the slope and associated buildings.

The Riesling associated with the site stands for full-bodied wines with fine spice and racy acidity, as well as for a longer ageing potential. The 2020 vintage is described as extremely powerful, mineral, firmly structured and complex, with spicy notes of red apple and juicy citrus fruit. For the 2022 vintage, the producer documented manual work in the vineyard, precise selection of the grapes, and eleven months of maturation in old casks with 1,200 and 600 litres of volume.

The Georg Breuer winery manages a total of 40 hectares of vineyard land in Rüdesheim, Rauenthal and Lorch in the Rheingau. Of this, 25.5 hectares are in Rüdesheim, 6.5 hectares in Rauenthal and 8 hectares in Lorch; 65 percent of the vineyards are in steep slopes.

The vineyards are planted to Riesling for 86 percent; the rest includes 10 percent Pinot Noir, 3 percent Pinot Gris and, together, 1 percent Pinot Blanc, Orléans and Heunisch. The Pfaffenwies in Lorch faces south-west, has a slope of up to 45 percent and lies at around 90 to 160 metres above sea level. Its soils consist of stony Hunsrück slate and Taunus quartzite, supplemented in the lower areas with loess. The Rüdesheimer Berg Schlossberg is characterised by slate and quartzite, while the Nonnenberg in Rauenthal is dominated by deep phyllite soils with gravel layers.

The winery produces dry wines from the Rheingau vineyards. The site- and vineyard-specific wines are described as complex and suitable for ageing. Rieslings from the Pfaffenwies are distinguished by pronounced minerality and acidity, while the wines from the Nonnenberg are characterised by power. Orléans has been grown on the slopes of the Rüdesheim Berg Schlossberg since 2000 and is matured in small wooden casks. The Georg Breuer Brut made from Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, produced since 1987, matures for eleven years on fine lees in the bottle before being disgorged.

Bernhard Scholl and Albert Hillebrand founded the winery in 1880 as part of a wine trading business. Since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been owned by the Breuer family. Georg Breuer expanded the business and wine exports; later, his sons Heinrich and Bernhard increased the amount of vineyard land. After Bernhard Breuer’s death in May 2004, Theresa Breuer took over the management and runs the winery today with the support of long-standing employees. The vineyards are farmed according to nature-oriented guidelines. According to its own information, the winery does without herbicides and pesticides, relies on adapted tillage and covers the plots with legumes. It is a founding member of FAIR’N GREEN and takes part in the biodiversity project AmBiTo.