Dreissigacker

From family business to a top address in Rheinhessen

The history of the winery dates back to 1728 — at that time a typical Rheinhessen agricultural farm in the tranquil town of Bechtheim in the Wonnegau region. For generations, the estate remained a solid family business until Jochen Dreissigacker began vinifying his first own wine in 2001. In 2005, he took over the business completely from his parents. Jochen had previously completed a winemaker apprenticeship at the Keller and Bergdolt wineries — two addresses that stand for precision and loyalty to terroir. What he brought to his parents' cellar was not a cautious further development, but a consistent new beginning: new standards in the vineyard, a clear stylistic image in the cellar, and finally a modern new winery building, which was inaugurated in May 2018 and is integrated directly into the vineyards. The fact that Jochen Dreissigacker today — without VDP membership — is one of the most discussed winemakers in Germany and his wines have found their way into top-tier gastronomy worldwide makes this career path one of the most remarkable stories in German viticulture of the last two decades.

Biodynamics, manual labor and gravity flow: the path into the bottle

Jochen Dreissigacker's credo can be summarized in one sentence: soils and sites should be tasteable. Consequently, he gradually converted the business to organic farming — from 2007, the step towards biodynamics followed. Since 2020, the winery has also been certified according to FAIR'N GREEN. On a total of 45 hectares in the top sites around Bechtheim (Geyersberg, Hasensprung, Rosengarten) and Westhofen (Aulerde, Kirchspiel, Morstein), the team invests almost 1,000 hours of manual labor per hectare and year. The soils — loess loam, limestone, clay marl — are fundamentally different depending on the site, and that is exactly what should be shown in the glass. In the cellar, Dreissigacker works with spontaneous fermentation, long yeast aging and a renunciation of pumps: all wines are moved exclusively by gravity flow in order to burden the structure of the grapes as little as possible. The modern cellar construction is technically designed according to this principle — gravity as the most important tool.

Yield reduction through careful pruning and consistent thinning ensures that the vines concentrate what the soil provides. The philosophy behind this has been formulated by Jochen Dreissigacker himself: give top wines above all one thing — plenty of time.

Riesling as the core, Burgundy as proof of versatility

Around 98 percent of production at Dreissigacker is white wine — red wine plays a deliberately subordinate role. The range is clearly structured: Riesling forms the core, supplemented by Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Rieslings from the limestone marl sites of Westhofen — cooler, ripening more slowly — show a different minerality than the sun-drenched Bechtheim sites; this bandwidth is reflected in the range structure. The Vintages series (red and white) brings together several vintages and grape varieties into multi-vintage cuvées, which enjoy special recognition among wine connoisseurs. With the Chardonnay Brut Nature and Pinot Brut Nature, Dreissigacker shows that the biodynamic philosophy also supports sparkling wine — consistently without dosage, with aging on the lees as a pillar of quality. In 2021, Eichelmann awarded the winery the top rating of "World Class". Anyone who knows the wines of Dreissigacker understands why Rheinhessen is mentioned in the same breath as the Mosel and Rheingau today.