Outstanding Vinotheks Details

Bright and modern, and tailored entirely to their personal tastes: the new Bauhaus-styled vinothek represents the fulfillment of a dream for Carolin and Jürgen Hofmann. It is a place to relax, a place to taste, a place of joy and enjoyment. Surrounded by green and looking out onto the vineyards and the glass-walled wine cellar, visitors can explore the catalogs of both the Willems-Willems and Hofmann estates. 

Carolin and Jürgen Hofmann each come from a distinct winegrowing dynasty. Carolin Hofmann, née Willems, has been producing her own wines since 2001 at Weingut Willems-Willems in the lovely Saarland town of Oberemmel. While the Saar is typically known for high-quality, naturally sweet wines, Willems has pursued fine dry and off-dry (feinherb) Rieslings. Hardly an easy mission. But all the more successful for it: Stuart Pigott proclaimed Carolin, a university-trained oenologist, to be the Young Winegrower of the Year in 2010, and in the "Best of Riesling" competition by industry journal "Weinwirtschaft" she claimed first prize in the category "Dry up to 12.5 percent." 

Surrounded by steep, south-facing vineyards, and thus protected against winds, Riesling and Pinot varieties thrive here at the junction of Saar and Mosel. The climate resembles the regions around the Mediterranean. Devonian slate soils, mixed with deposits from the age in which the small but picturesque Konzer Valley still held a river, give the region's wines an unmistakable minerality and delicate fruitiness. 

2006 saw Carolin marry Jürgen Hofmann, himself a child of the winery life, having grown up with vintner parents Klaus and Irene in the Rheinhessen town of Appenheim. The Gault Millau has described him as a "true jack of all trades." And so Carolin and Jürgen settled down in Appenheim, a town between Mainz and Bingen around five kilometers from the Rhine, and began investing in the construction of their newly shared estate. Cellar, bottle storage and vinothek have all found a home, as has a residence for the entire family, which now includes little Johanna, Paul and Helena. 

His finest hillside vineyards are shaped by shell limestone from the Tertiary Period, known for bringing out expressive mineral notes in the wines. The region's advantageous geological and climatic markers appear not just in Hofmann's Rieslings, but also his Grüner Silvaner, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot varieties as well. The pair came up with a motto back in 2011 – "Slate meets Shell Limestone" — to express the complementary relationship between the two estates' portfolios, based on the connection between very different terroirs. A connection between slate and shell limestone. Between Saar and Rheinhessen. Between Carolin and Jürgen.