Four days of grower-led pouring on Nierstein's Marktplatz and Rheinufer at the foot of the Roter Hang, with stands from Schaetzel, St. Antony, Gunderloch, Manz and other Pettenthal and Hipping producers. The riverfront frames Rheinhessen's most photographed wine village.
Tip: Walk up the Roter Hang trail in the morning before the festival opens; the Pettenthal and Hipping slopes carry their clearest red-slate light at sunrise.
Kai Schaetzel converted the family's 14.1 hectares on the Nierstein Roter Hang to Demeter-certified biodynamic farming and EU-Bio across the 2010s, with low-intervention winemaking on the Pettenthal, Hipping and Oelberg Riesling Grosse Lage sites.
Tip: Walk the Roter Hang trail behind the estate before tasting; the Demeter farming reads cleanly in the iron-rich red-slate Pettenthal and Hipping parcels above the Rhine.
Under the Meyer family ownership St. Antony took the full 48.9 hectares in Nierstein to Demeter certification and EU-Bio. The Roter Hang Pettenthal, Hipping, Oelberg and Orbel parcels are worked biodynamically alongside a Blaufraenkisch micro-plot.
Tip: Compare the Oelberg and Orbel GG side by side; both sit on the southern Roter Hang and the Demeter farming reads in the iron-rich red-slate frame.
Kai Schaetzel works the 14.1-hectare Nierstein estate under Demeter certification with extended skin-contact and spontaneous-fermentation techniques on the Reverse Riesling and the Roter Hang cuvee. The low-intervention frame is the modern Roter Hang signature.
Tip: The Reverse Riesling is the estate's natural-wine signature; the extended skin-contact reading of the Roter Hang style sits a long way from the dry GG mainstream.