First documented mention dates back to 1291 – when a »Phennich« (later »Pfennig«, a penny) was paid to or paid by a citizen to purchase a vineyard on this hillside.

So the name can either have come from a particularly low price of real estate, or, as the vernacular suggests, from the wisdom that one must work very hard to earn every penny from this vineyard.

This is especially true of the upper part where our Riesling vines have made their home. Old plants  there provide the indispensable prerequisite for vinifying great wines. Vines can certainly root themselves well into the mica schist, but that takes several decades. If one has plants of the proper age, a grower will harvest fine and elegant Rieslings, which with maturity develop a typical note of slate. As a result, they are quite often confused with German representatives of this variety!