Vineyards & Sites

We have about 17 hectares of vineyards in Bischoffingen and surrounding areas.

Sites & Terroir

Isn’t it amazing, that exactly one sort of stone shall be responsible for a special taste in a wine???

A winemaker not wanting to explain too much of why a wine tastes just the way it tastes… He might just say :”C’est le Terroir” (“It’s the Terroir”). Photographers take beautiful snapshots of stones, the soil and the dirt and these pics cover the front pages of wine magazines. And the readers really believe in what they see and read.

For all worshipers of the Terroir… It needs some fundamental understanding.

The climate
Light, temperature, water and wind are coarse factors, that enable a plant to grow. But the exact definition of amount of light, day and night temperatures, frost, rainfall and wind gives an idea, if a special variety can grow and produce ripe grapes or not. More important, if the taste of the resulting wine made from these grapes is “wow” or “not so good”.

The soil
One really important aspect of the soil is its capability to store water and supply the root system of the growing plants. It will take longer for a vine to suffer from drought if the soil has a high water capacity. But what about the wet years? The soil will feed the plant too much. Big crop levels and big diluted berries will reduce overall wine quality. At times of drought, photosynthesis stops and the plant starts to use up its own reserves. A slight water stress situation can be good for quality. The plant stops its vegetative growth and uses its energy for the generative growth and production of reserves.
    • “Wet feet”: Vines don’t like wet feet… layers of water, where no air gets in contact. Microorganism have problems mineralising the important nutrients for the plant.
    • mineral content of “plant-available nutrients”: Is an important mineral missing, metabolism in the plant is changing, impacting the plants positively or negatively.
    • humus content: You can win “plant-availabl nutrients” from the humus.
    • ph-value of the soil: The nutrient uptake depends from the ph-value of the soil. You can choose grafted vines which are qualified for certain ph-values.
    • soil colour: Dark soil is heating-up faster than pale soil. But pale soil reflects more what supports the colouring of the red grapes.
    • The age of a vine: The age of a vine impacts the wine quality. The older a vine is, the deeper the roots are achieving more nutrients. Wines from older vines often taste more fullbodied and complex. The age of a vine is a very important component of the term “terroir”.
Clones
Vine clones have a deep impact of the aroma of a wine. Considering Chardonnay, for example, there are „aroma-clones“ or „acidity-clones“.

Viticultering a vineyard

Trellising, pruning and canopy management are all important factors of the growth and maturation of a vine and its grapes.

„Terroir“ is the amount of all location factores and the micro-climate of a vineyard. The winemaking with its different techniques helps just to preserve the „terroir-character“ of a wine!

Selection Johner Vineyard sites

We like to present two of our top vineyards sites where our Selection Johner wines are from.

site: Bischoffinger Steinbuck; variety: Pinot Noir 777
position and exponation: Further up situated on a round rocky back. Further down the valley ends in a big basin. Exponation: south; uphill grade 10%.

clima and wind: A very warm site due to the basin and the exponation southwards. The rocky back guarantees a good aeration of the site.
water capacity and supply: The soil is heavy through the Loess mixed with volcanic soil. The water capacity is not very high. Especially on the rocky back water deficiency can occure.
“wet feet”: Fortunately no problems at all here.
humus and mineral content: There is a good supply of the soil, we insert humus and pomace from time to time.
pH-value: A high ph-value through our volcanic soil. We planted vines grafted with “SO4” which loves soils with a high ph-value.
soil colour: black
age: planted 2000
clone: Pinot Noir 777. A clone offering fruits with cherry flavours and “chocolate”-tannins.
Viticultering: local wire system.
wine: A fullbodied burgundy-style Pinot Noir. The clone is influencing the taste much.

site: Oberrotweiler Eichberg; variety: Pinot Noir:
position and exponation: situated at the highest point of the Oberrotweiler Eichberg at a round rocky back. Exponation: from west to east.
clima and wind: Very windy with a good aeration through the position and exponation.
water capacity and supply: The soil is heavy, clay is mixed with volcanic soil. The water capacity is not very high. Especially on the rocky back water deficiency can occure.
“wet feet”: Fortunately no problems at all here.
humus and mineral content: There is a good supply of the soil, we insert humus and pomace from time to time.
pH-value: Hoher pH-Wert. A high ph-value through our volcanic soil. The vines are very very old, we do not know on which vine the plants are grafted.
soil colour: black
age: planted 1981
clone: Pinot Noir FR 52-86.
Viticultering: local wire system.
wine: Tasting the wine of this old vines growing on this exlusive vineyard site you can discover what the term “terroir” really means. This clone offers more green-fresh flavours. The age of the vines delivers complexity, the volcanic soil extract and minerality. Vinification does hardly impact the terroir-character.