Weingut Diefenhardt

The winery is located in the municipality of Martinsthal in the German wine-growing region of Rheingau. It looks back on several hundred years of history and tradition. The cellars still in use today, for example, date back to the 17th century. In 1917, Jacob Diefenhardt acquired the property from Baron von Reichenau. Since that time, the winery has been family-owned and operated; today by the Seyffardt family. After his studies in Geisenheim, a year in Stellenbosch (South Africa) as cellar master and then six months at Bodega Etchart in Cafayate (Argentina) as a consultant, Peter Seyffardt joined his parents' winery in 1981. He has been running it since 1998. In the meantime, daughter Julia has joined the business.

The predominantly steep vineyards cover almost 17 hectares of vineyards in the Langenberg, Rödchen and Wildsau sites (Martinsthal), as well as Rothenberg (Rauenthal). They are planted exclusively with the two varieties Riesling (75%) and Pinot Noir (25%). In the vineyard, the preservation and improvement of soil fertility with the aim of achieving an ecological balance between soil and vine is the top priority. Quality criteria are optimisation of the leaf-fruit ratio, organic fertilisation, low yield thinning of the grapes, timely defoliation of the grape zone, negative selections and selective hand harvesting. In the cellar, these include whole bunch pressing, pre-clarification, controlled fermentation, long lees ageing and varietal and vineyard-specific ageing. The Pinot Noir red wines are aged exclusively in barrique barrels. The quality pyramid includes the three VDP classification levels. The winery is a member of the VDP.