TERROIR PROFILE
Bad Kreuznach
Rotliegend and loess around the spa town
Bad Kreuznach delivers juicy, approachable wines – Bockenau the smoky exception.
Climate, site & wine
Rotliegend (porphyry rock), loess, sandstone and loam alternate; in Bockenau the Felseneck has Upper Rotliegend with blue Devonian slate and quartzite, the Stromberg weathered porphyry and melaphyre. The rock gives Riesling structure, the loess fullness.
The wines range from elegant, fruity Rieslings from Bad Kreuznach to taut, mineral wines from Bockenau. Grauburgunder and Weissburgunder are dense and round.
TERROIR PROFILE · Nahe
Bad Kreuznach Rotliegend and loess around the spa town
Bad Kreuznach delivers juicy, approachable wines – Bockenau the smoky exception.
SOILS
Rotliegendes (red slate)warm, spicy, exotic
Permian Rotliegendes — iron-rich, heat-storing. Yields characterful, spicy Rieslings with unusual depth.
Loessround, fruity, full
Loess stores water and nutrients. Wines tend to be rounder, juicier and fuller.
Loambody-rich, velvety
Loamy soils give wines volume and a soft, velvety mouthfeel.
Slatemineral, smoky
Slate stores heat and releases it at night — wines show wet stone, smoke and a delicate structure.
CLIMATE · Warm · Dry · Sunny
Dry and mild in the rain shadow of the Hunsrück and Soonwald, with a wide, open valley. Rainfall is around 480 to 600 millimetres a year; ripening is early to mid-season.
TOPOGRAPHY · mixed
Gentle slopes and plateaus around Bad Kreuznach, with sites such as Kahlenberg, Krötenpfuhl (about 135 to 150 metres) and Brückes, and in the side valleys near Bockenau the steeper sites Felseneck and Stromberg in the valley of the Ellerbach.
WHAT IT MEANS IN THE GLASS
Similar terroirs worldwide
Computed from fingerprint similarity
Rheinhessen-Mitte
Rheinhessen
96% similar
- Dryness (slightly): Bad Kreuznach is drier → more concentrated, denser, smaller berries (7 vs. 6).
Alzey-Land
Rheinhessen
96% similar
- Dryness (slightly): Bad Kreuznach is drier → more concentrated, denser, smaller berries (7 vs. 6).
Wineries on this terroir
See all 79 →Weingut Prinz Salm
Wallhausen
Renown 52/100
Weingut Schäfer-Fröhlich
Bockenau
Renown 42/100
Weingut Korrell Johanneshof
Bad Kreuznach
Renown 30/100
Weingut Hees
Auen
Renown 22/100
Weingut Edgar Orben
Wallhausen
Renown 21/100
Weingut Johannishof
Wallhausen
Renown 20/100
Weingut Franz Jäckel
Wallhausen
Renown 20/100
Keber Kolling
Sommerloch
Renown 13/100
This terroir's soils in the glossary