Erste Lage
Ried Hochäcker

First official documentation in 1425, when a Herr Stephan Zebinger bequeathed an acre of vineyard in the ‘upper farmlands’ to the nunnery in Minpach, today’s Imbach (a municipal district in Senftenberg).

As the name implies, these are the highest terraces lying beneath the level high plain that reaches toward Langenlois and Krems.

For this reason, not so long ago the vineyard was looked upon as but one of the middling-quality and colder sites in Senftenberg. But it is exactly these airy and cooler conditions which prove to be more and more of an advantage in the current days of climate change. The Hochäcker, profiting from the warmer climate, has quickly come up into the upper echelon of Senftenberg’s vineyard sites.

In their youth, these wines are often angular and highly concentrated, but with a degree of maturity they develop an inimitable subtlety and elegance. They frequently exhibit a spicy personality that can be traced back to the natural and varied environment characterised by hedges, field boundaries, poor grasslands, rock formations and small woods. This diverse landscape, which some even describe as ‘wild’, is home to a variety of plants like wormwood or maidenhair. This leads to the growth of rich insect populations and abundant wildlife, which is the complete opposite of monoculture.

Facts

Area: 2.45 ha
Varieties: Riesling, Gelber Muskateller
Exposition: south to west
Elevation: 300–370m
Gradient: 30-45°

Soil

extremely iron-rich, relatively well-weathered paragneiss with frequent veins of amphibolite. It’s simply a made-to-measure fit for producing superlative Rieslings.