Schloss Johannisberg is a castle and winery in the village of Johannisberg to the west of Wiesbaden, Hesse, in the Rheingau wine-growing region of Germany. It has been making wine for over 900 years. The winery is most noted for its claim to have "discovered" late harvest wine. The palace is a venue of the Rheingau Musik Festival, made available by co-founder Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg.
Schloss Johannisberg within its vineyards
Aerial photo, 2006
Basilika St. Johannes
Schloss Johannisberg around 1832, engraving by William Tombleson
Rheingau is one of 13 designated German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) producing quality wines . It was named after the traditional region of Rheingau, the wine region is situated in the state of Hesse, where it constitutes part of the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis administrative district. Although, making up only 3 percent of the total German vineyard area, Rheingau has been the source of many historically important innovations in German wine making, and contains many wine producers of international reputation, such as Schloss Johannisberg. Rheingau, with 3,125 hectares of vineyards in 2016, also boasts a higher proportion of Riesling (77.7%) than any other German wine-growing region, with Spätburgunder making up most of the rest (12.2%), followed by Müller-Thurgau.
Schloss Johannisberg is one of the best known historical important domaines in Germany. It is famous as an early adopter of the Riesling grape varietal, and as the site where the German form of noble rot was discovered by accident.
Erbacher Marcobrunn, surrounded by vineyards.
The Eberbach Abbey was built by the Cistercian monks who founded much of the Rheingau wine industry, and the buildings still house a wine cellar of the Hessian state winery and are used for wine auctions.
Old wine cellar at Eberbach Abbey