Steep slope vineyards

Where breath-taking steep slopes, arduous handcraft, mineral slate soils and the full power of the sun meet, the end product isn't going to be your garden-variety wine. Our products are something special  – customised individial pieces.

Steep slope vineyards mean this above all: handcraft. This goes from pruning in winter, to the grape harvest in autumn. Each individual grape goes through the scrutiny of our harvest team. Using a machine to manage our vineyard is only possible to a very limited extent. Hence, cost of labour and physical exertion is considerably higher than on level ground. Our revenue is also substantialy smaller because of the barren, stony, rock-infiltrated soil.

Despite these supposed disadvantages of sleep slopes we relish the challenge of using the qualitative advantages. Because of the gradient, our vines enjoy more sunshine and the stony subsoil stores the sun's warmth until late at night. The low decomposition pressure on our shallow soils allows us a long maturation time on the vine and therefore a late harvest.

To cope with the special demands of steep slopes, we deliberately preserve old vineyard layouts and rely on new planting using old Riesling clones. These can better withstand dry periods and produce particularly extract-rich wines. Here's a truism: steep slopes are what produce our good quality.

The Rhine paths and a variety of other hiking trails invite you to come and picture for yourself what a Lorch vineyard looks like. Best of all accompanied by an Altenkirch wine!