Käserei Horst
Handkäse dairy in Groß-Gerau, a family business since 1862, which calls itself Germany's oldest sour-milk dairy. Handkäse is sold at the dairy, which publishes no opening hours.
About Hessischer Handkäse
A small sour-milk cheese made from cow's-milk quark and shaped into palm-sized rounds of 20 to 125 g; the name comes from once shaping them by hand. The quark is ground, mixed with ripening salts, salt and sometimes caraway, ripened for a few days in a warm sweating room and sold as a red-smear yellow cheese, in one style also with a white milk mould. Hessischer Handkäse is the protected form of Handkäse: a PGI since 2010 for cheese made and packed in Hesse, which takes in the Rheingau. Its best-known serving is Handkäs mit Musik, in an onion, vinegar and oil marinade. Weingut Koegler's Gutsausschank in Eltville names Handkäs among the Rheingau specialities of its kitchen.
Made in: The federal state of Hesse, which includes the Rheingau
On the plate
The EU single document describes the smeared cheese as pure, spicy to piquant, with a smooth golden-yellow to reddish-brown smear and a whitish to slightly yellow paste, supple to firm. The style with white milk mould is pure, mild to slightly aromatic.
Rind: washed, orange and sticky
Wine and cheese
What to pour with Hessischer Handkäse
Dry Rheingau Riesling (light to medium-bodied) Rheingau
Our pickApple wine is the usual drink with Handkäse, and German Wikipedia names dry white wine for areas such as Rheinhessen and the Palatinate. A dry, high-acid Riesling meets the onion and vinegar marinade with acidity of its own.
The grapes behind these winesRiesling
From the source
Where to buy and taste it
Käserei H. Birkenstock
Family dairy making Handkäse in Hüttenberg since 1959; its site calls the town Hesse's Handkäse capital. Visitors can buy at the factory shop on weekdays or from the 24-hour vending machine.
Edelpilz Käse | Genuss
Small cheese and wine shop in central Eltville, run by a trained sommelier who worked at a Rheingau VDP estate. To avoid competing with Rheingau wine producers, it leans on fortified wines and Loire and Alsace bottles.
Bergkäse Station
Cheese shop in Wiesbaden, founded in 2006 as a mountain-dairy outlet, selling mostly German and Swiss cheeses, many bought direct from producers. It is not a Rheingau cheese range.
Cheese experiences nearby
Wein trifft Käse at Weingut Diefenhardt
A wine tasting at the Martinsthal estate that sets its wines against selected cheese specialties, guided by a culture and wine ambassador. Listed for Saturday 31 October 2026 at 16:00.
7 Käse 7 Weine with Reiner Wechs
A seven-cheese, seven-wine evening led by cheese master Reiner Wechs, from Luxembourg through Spain to Georgia. It is a European tasting in Wiesbaden, not a Rheingau one. Listed for Friday 6 November 2026, 19:30.
Wiesbaden Wochenmarkt at the Dern'sches Gelände
Wiesbaden's main weekly food market. Hof Zorn from the Untertaunus sells its raw-milk cheeses here on both market days, and from March to November Wiesbaden wine estates take turns at a wine stand.
Hessischer Handkäse: questions
Is Hessischer Handkäse the same as Handkäse?
Handkäse is the type: a small sour-milk cheese eaten across the Rhine-Main area, Rheinhessen and the Palatinate, and the type itself is not protected. Hessischer Handkäse is the protected name, a PGI under Regulation (EU) 784/2010 since September 2010: only Handkäse made and packed in Hesse may carry it, though the quark need not come from Hesse.
What is Handkäs mit Musik?
Handkäse marinated in onions, vinegar and oil. The EU single document calls it one of the best-known ways of eating the cheese.
What do people drink with Handkäse?
German Wikipedia says apple wine is the usual drink, and that a dry white wine is also drunk with it in some areas such as Rheinhessen and the Palatinate. The EU single document says no inn in Hesse should be without Handkäse, alongside Äbbelwoi, the local apple wine.
Is Hessischer Handkäse made in the Rheingau?
The protected area is the whole of Hesse, which includes the Rheingau. German Wikipedia names four Handkäse dairies in Hesse in 2014: three in Hochelheim, part of Hüttenberg in central Hesse, and Käserei Horst in Groß-Gerau. None of those is in the Rheingau.
Same cheeseboard
More cheeses from Rheingau
Plan the trip
Visit Hessischer Handkäse country
Tastings and tours where it is made, and somewhere to stay.
Rheingau
Querfeldwein / Wine Hike with Cable Car Ride in Rüdesheim am Rhein
All 502 experiences in RheingauBooking links go to our partners (GetYourGuide, Viator, Zen Hotels), who may pay us a commission. It never decides what we cover. Editorial standards.
Sources: protection register, ec.europa.eu, de.wikipedia.org. The drawing is made from the cheese's recorded shape, rind and paste, not a photograph.