Weingut Ziereisen

Winery Ziereisen - A family business

The trained carpenter Hanspeter Ziereisen of the Ziereisen Winery was already enthusiastic about wine in his childhood and youth days and as a teenager he finally began to search for and taste the best wines of the world. He developed a particular passion for the wines of Burgundy. He founded his winery in 1991 and, with the help of his wife Edeltraut, expanded it to what is now 21 hectares of vines. In the meantime, his two children Ida and Johann also support their parents in the family business, with the aim of possibly taking it over themselves one day.

Hanspeter Ziereisen's wines have already received many awards. The wine guide Gault& Millau even awarded Ziereisen's Gutedel "10 hoch 4" in 2015 as the very first Gutedel ever with the highest score of 100.

The company philosophy

The two solid pillars of Ziereisen quality are clearly time and craftsmanship. The family holds the conviction that a lot of tact, manual work and experience are crucial in dealing with the vines. Without exception, the wines are fermented spontaneously, and cellar interventions are completely dispensed with. Most of the Ziereisen wines are bottled unfiltered. 

Important pillars of wine production at the Ziereisen winery are:

Handwork

The work on the vines is almost exclusively done by hand in order to gain a feel for the soil and the vines. Of course, the harvest is also done manually. Parts of the grapes are even double selected to ensure a maximum of flawless grapes and thus the highest quality. The process continues with the selection of the barrels. For many years, the Ziereisen winery has exclusively used new barrels from the Büttnerei of Andreas Assmann, one of the few barrel makers in Germany still working by hand.

Wine character

The wines of the Ziereisen winery are united by their initially very reserved nose. On the palate, however, the wines are complex and multifaceted, with long-lasting aromas. Chaptalization is completely avoided in order to produce cool wines with moderate alcohol levels.

Time

Especially the fermentation of the wines is given a lot of time at Weingut Ziereisen, no matter how long it takes. Some wines therefore lie on their lees for up to 24 months and are given time to harmonize further even after that.

The vineyards

The vineyards of the Ziereisen winery are mainly located in the Efringer Ölberg. This site is characterized by two important factors: the soils are Jurassic limestone, similar to Burgundy, joined by loess layers of varying thickness and iron components. The wines owe their cool finesse to these components. The second factor is the favorable climate, which is characterized by Burgundy. Mediterranean air blows over the vineyards here, with low levels of precipitation.

The grape varieties

The Ziereisen family mainly plants:

• Pinot Noir
• Gutedel
• Pinot Blanc
• Pinot Gris
• Chardonnay
• Muscat
• Gewürztraminer
• Syrah

Cellar work

The Ziereisen family accompanies its wines in the cellar more than it intervenes in the production process. The wines mature in wooden barrels of 225 to 4000 liters. Shortly before bottling, a moderate amount of sulfurization takes place before the Ziereisen wines are bottled unfined and predominantly unfiltered. In addition, since 2006, all Ziereisen wines have been marketed as Landweine.

The Ziereisen wines

The Ziereisen wines are available in the following qualities:

• Estate wines/sparkling wines
• Vineyard wines
• Premium wines
• Jasper wines