The Man from Mosel River

Karthäuserhof Estate, main gate

A winery I always wanted to visit is the Weingut Karthäuserhof in Eitelsbach, a small hamlet which is part of Ruwer, a suburb of Trier, just a couple of kilometres away from my home in the city centre.

The wine estate Karthäuserhof is a member of the elite club of German wine estates, the VDP. It is a prime producer of outstanding Riesling wines. The estate if farmed by the sixth generation of the Tyrell family. The vintner Christoph Tyrell is well known in the region and beyond.

Every year on the second weekend in August, Karthäuserhof is hosting a wine tasting conducted in co-operation with about a dozen other top German wineries from various wine regions. The 2012 tasting was a very special occasion since it marked the 200 anniversary and jubilee vintage of the Tyrell family.

The 11 August 2012 was a special day indeed; it was our last full day in Germany before our departure to Bangkok. My wife Margit and I, we were looking forward to the event despite the fact that we knew we could not buy a lot since our suitcases were already full with various bottles of wine which we had already purchased.

Our view from the bathroom window

Since we stayed with friends right across from the estate, we had a great view of the location “Karthäuserhofberg”, one of the ‘grand cru terroir’ of Karthäuserhof.

The vineyard has an inclination of about 50%. The soil is Devon grey and blue slate. It is situated right next to the winery and exclusively in the ownership of the Tyrell family. The total area under vines in one plots (very unusual for Germany, I would say) is about 19 ha, 17.7 of which are under Riesling, the rest under Pinot Blanc grapes.

I hope I have wetted your appetite. My next blog entry will deal with the wine tasting, the various wineries represented and their wines. Stay tuned.

Address:
Weingut Karthäuserhof
Karthäuser Straße,
54292 Trier,
Germany
Tel.: +49-651-5121
http://www.karthaeuserhof.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 at 10:30 pm and is filed under vineyards, wine, wine regions, wineries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.