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Chestnut
7.5 per cent alcohol. A Kabinett from one of the best vineyards in Germany. Schätzel Winery in Nierstein shows that great wines don't have to be loud. Kai Schätzel has been running the family vineyard on the Roter Hang since 2008 - and consistently favours lightness over power. His Rieslings and Silvaner mature in the 800-year-old wooden barrel cellar to become wines with inner tension: reduced, precise, independent. Demeter-certified since 2023, VDP member since 2016.
More about Schätzel
The cellar as a time capsule
Anyone entering the cellar of the Schätzel winery is immersed in eight centuries of winegrowing history. The family has been cultivating its plots on the Niersteiner Roter Hang since 1350 - and still makes wine in the same vaults in which their ancestors filled the wooden barrels. The reddish-brown clay slate of the Rotliegend, which characterises the steep slopes, is reflected in the wines: mineral, earthy, with an almost salty note.
Your own Silvaner clone
In the plots of the location Hipping no ordinary Silvaner vines grow here. Kai Schätzel cultivates a own Schätzel clone in 30 to 40 year old vineyards - small, thick-skinned berries that produce concentrated wines with fabulous freshness. While Silvaner is often dismissed as an everyday wine in Rheinhessen, Schätzel demonstrates the potential of the grape variety Silvaner-level that few others can match. Its VDP.GROSSE LAGEN - Pettenthal, Ölberg and Hipping - are among the best that German vineyards have to offer. At Pettenthal, where the neighbouring Kühling-Gillot Rieslings of enormous depth are the result.
Cabinet as the supreme discipline
While other winemakers focus on strength and extraction, Kai Schätzel chooses a different path. His Riesling Kabinett with only 7.5 per cent alcohol is not a concession to the zeitgeist, but a conviction. The balance of Sweetness and acidity, the feathery lightness with simultaneous depth - this requires meticulous work in the vineyard. Up to six harvests, extreme selection, early harvest for freshness. Then in the cellar: spontaneous fermentation in large wooden barrels, gentle pressing over 20 hours, storage for up to two years before bottling.
Natural wine grande vintages: a German première
In 2020, Schätzel became the first German winery to Natural wine plants on the market - spontaneously fermented, without sulphur, bottled unfiltered. Stephan Reinhardt from the Wine Advocate called Schätzel „one of the most exciting and interesting new discoveries in German wine culture.“ The Natural white demonstrates this philosophy at estate wine level: reductive, with rough edges, but never intentionally different. Together with Juliane Eichblatt, who joined the winery in 2020, Kai Schätzel is also driving forward biodynamic certification - the estate has held the Demeter seal. His credo remains: „Lighter, longer and sometimes a little wilder.“