Nahe
DIEL
The Diel family bought the castle Layern and its surrounding vineyards in 1802 and have been making wines ever since. But it was Armin Diel, the current owner, who made the estate famous in the late 1980s. This family estate owns 3 top sites in the Village of Dorsheim, the Goldloch, Burgberg and Pittermännchen, all were classified as Grand Cru in the historic Prussian Classification Map from 1901. Schlossgut Diel’s wines are famous for their finest and grace as well as their beautiful harmony between fruit and mineral. The wines are rich yet extremely delicate, a true expression of the estate’s “power without weight” style. Since 2006, Caroline Diel – the daughter of Armin who learned wine-making at Germany’s most famous wine university, Geisenheim, as well as at famous estates such as Château Pichon Lalande and Domaine de la Romanée Conti – has been responsible for the vineyard and cellar work. From then on, the already superb wines from this estate have become even more refined and elegant.
DÖNNHOFF
At the beginning of his career, Helmut Dönnhoff would make every style of wine from everywhere but he soon realised that each site, with its own soil and micro-climate, is only best suitable for certain styles of wine. It then took him some twenty years to learn the secrets of his different vineyard sites and now only best wines for each parcel are made. His ice wines made from the Oberhäuser Brücker site, for example, have received 4 times 100 points from Parker and achieved a cult status. Nowadays, Mr. Dönnhoff is a living legend and widely regarded as one of the best vintner in Germany. His wines were praised nationally and internationally as one of the best wines of the world.