A Schweigen Pinot Noir specialist at 29.8 ha under Friedrich Wilhelm Becker, VDP member since 2000, with 80 percent Burgunder plantings and Grosse Lage vines literally crossing the French border into Alsace.
Address: Hauptstrasse 29, 76889 Schweigen, Germany, Pfalz
A 99.7 ha Laumersheim estate under Werner, Volker and Stephan Knipser, VDP member since 1993, and the German barrique-pioneer estate for Cabernet, Merlot and Pinot Noir from the 1980s onward.
Tasting: Estate Vinothek at Hauptstrasse 47-49 by appointment; tastings cover Kirschgarten, Mandelpfad and Steinbuckel GGs and the Knipser Bordeaux-blend reds that pioneered the category in Germany from the 1980s.
A 61 ha north-Mittelhaardt and Zellertal estate at Laumersheim under Philipp Kuhn, VDP member since 2008, with Grosse Lage parcels at Kirschgarten, Steinbuckel, Im Grossen Garten, Schwarzer Herrgott and Kallstadter Saumagen.
Tasting: Vinothek at Grosskarlbacher Strasse 20 by appointment; estate tastings cover the Laumersheimer Kirschgarten and Steinbuckel GGs and the Zellertaler Schwarzer Herrgott and Kreuzberg Rieslings.
A 19.9 ha Birkweiler VDP estate (member since 1991) under Franz Wehrheim, respekt-BIODYN certified, with Grosse Lage parcels at Mandelberg, Kastanienbusch (Koppel) and Siebeldinger Im Sonnenschein.
Tasting: Vinothek at Weinstrasse 8 by appointment; Mandelberg, Kastanienbusch and Im Sonnenschein vineyard walks bookable in season.
A 12.5 ha Kallstadt traditionalist working Saumagen, Steinacker and Annaberg with spontaneous fermentation in old oak; the Saumagen R Riesling has been bottled in this house style since the Bernd Philippi era from the 1970s.
Tasting: Estate tastings by appointment in the Kallstadt Weinstrasse cellar; traditional spontaneous fermentation in old oak with extended lees contact, Saumagen R bottlings released years after vintage.
A 16.3 ha Ungstein estate at Pfeffingen 2 under Jan Eymael, VDP member since 1986; Herrenberg and Weilberg Grosse Lage Rieslings and the historic Pfalz Scheurebe reference bottling.
Tasting: Vinothek at Pfeffingen 2 by appointment; tastings cover Ungsteiner Herrenberg and Weilberg GG plus the estate's Scheurebe lineup, the Pfeffingen reference.
A 1921-founded Forst estate at Weinstrasse 27 under Sabine Mosbacher-Duringer and Jurgen Duringer, certified organic since 2012, with all four Forster Grosse Lage sites in production: Kirchenstuck, Jesuitengarten, Pechstein, Ungeheuer.
Tasting: Vinothek at Weinstrasse 27 by appointment; tastings cover all four Forster Grosse Lage GGs and the estate's dry Spatburgunder.
