One hundred and thirty years after its founding, the story at Gunderloch, one of the Rheinhessen’s most revered estates, is evolving. The changes happening here are cause for real excitement, and all of them are springing from the restless mind of Johannes Hasselbach, the master and commander of the estate since 2016. He is taking Gunderloch in a new direction, and the resulting wines are achieving levels of grace, balance, and natural energy never seen before.

Gunderloch is a thriving estate of approximately twenty-five hectares of vines in some of the top vineyards of the “Roter Hang” (“red slope”) area in the Rheinhessen appellation. In Nackenheim they own the dominant portion of the Grand Cru ‘Rothenberg’ (sixty-five percent of the estate’s holdings) which is planted completely to Riesling. Their Grosses Gewächs (GG) from here is the flagship of the estate; their noble sweets from the site are legendary. The other part of their production comes from five kilometres down the road in Nierstein, where they work steep parcels of vineyards whose names resound to the ears of German wine lovers:  Niersteiner ‘Pettenthal’ and Niersteiner ‘Hipping’, which both provide GG wines for them. The average yield is held to forty-five hectolitres per hectare, among the lowest in Germany, resulting in wines of high extraction and great quality. Minimum ripeness for the various quality levels is significantly above the requirements of the German wine law. The wines are never de-acidified and in high acid vintages bottling is often delayed allowing the wines to harmonise and soften. The cellar work is accomplished with a minimum amount of handling, experimental whilst slowly changing as Johannes pursues his explorations in winemaking.