TERROIR PROFILE
Wonnegau
Loess paradise with warm fruit
Wonnegau means juicy, full-bodied Rieslings and Silvaner — Wittmann, Keller, Battenfeld-Spanier.
Climate, site & wine
Extensive loess areas provide deep, warm soils for powerful Weissburgunder, Silvaner and Spätburgunder. The Westhofener Morstein, by contrast, consists of clayey marl with lime over massive limestone from Tertiary coral reefs; here Riesling gains tension and saline minerality.
Typical are full-bodied, dry wines, tauter and longer on the limestone sites. The limestone sites are the exception in a loess landscape.
TERROIR PROFILE · Rheinhessen
Wonnegau Loess paradise with warm fruit
Wonnegau means juicy, full-bodied Rieslings and Silvaner — Wittmann, Keller, Battenfeld-Spanier.
SOILS
Loessround, fruity, full
Loess stores water and nutrients. Wines tend to be rounder, juicier and fuller.
Limestoneprecise, mineral
Limestone delivers tension, structure and a cooler, more mineral character.
Marlbalanced, structured
Marl is a mix of limestone and clay — yields structured, balanced wines with acidity backbone.
Loambody-rich, velvety
Loamy soils give wines volume and a soft, velvety mouthfeel.
CLIMATE · Warm · Dry · Sunny
Warm and dry in the lee of the Hunsrück and Palatinate Forest; the Wonnegau is the warmest part of Rheinhessen and climatically close to the neighbouring Pfalz. The Rhine near Worms tempers extremes.
TOPOGRAPHY · gentle
Gentle rolling hills west of Worms with broad valley floors and rounded crests, without marked steep sites. The great Westhofen sites Morstein and Kirchspiel stand on limestone ridges above the loess areas.
WHAT IT MEANS IN THE GLASS
Similar terroirs worldwide
Computed from fingerprint similarity
Südliche Weinstraße
Palatinate
100% similar
- Wonnegau and Südliche Weinstraße share a strikingly similar fingerprint — the differences lie in soil and grape varieties.
Tuniberg
Baden
100% similar
- Wonnegau and Tuniberg share a strikingly similar fingerprint — the differences lie in soil and grape varieties.
Wineries on this terroir
See all 148 →Weingut Keller
Flörsheim-Dalsheim
Renown 88/100
Weingut Wittmann
Westhofen
Renown 73/100
Sekthaus Raumland
Flörsheim-Dalsheim
Renown 45/100
Weingut Battenfeld-Spanier
Hohen-Sülzen
Renown 39/100
Weingut Schales
Flörsheim-Dalsheim
Renown 34/100
Weingut Scherner-Kleinhanß
Flörsheim-Dalsheim
Renown 29/100
Weingut Bert Wechsler Erben
Osthofen
Renown 29/100
Weingut Winter
Dittelsheim-Heßloch
Renown 29/100
This terroir's soils in the glossary