Schlossberg
The Schlossberg (castle hill), the highest point of the village of Castell, has its name from the original castle of the Counts of Castell from the 12th Century. The ‘Obere Burg’ (High Castle) was the erstwhile castle of the Castell family until the new castle was built in the 17th Century on the lower slopes of the castle hill. The stairwell tower, which is still visible from a far distance, is the only remnant of the old castle.
The Schlossberg has been documented as vineyard as early as 1266 and has become known for its quality and unique taste. In 1659, it became the birthplace of the Silvaner in Germany. This is where Riesling and Silvaner develop their unique characters. Quantity is not important; quality alone is what counts, justifying the hard manual labour demanded by the vineyard. Its slopes with a gradient of up to 70 % make it largely impossible to work with machinery.
The vines are rooted in Keuper Soil, which can be seen through colourful layers of slate, clay and alabaster inclusions. The latter is a special form of gypsum and its white, red and pink marbled formations can be viewed at various points on the mountain. The rich topsoil only consists of a thin layer, which forces the vines to root into the lower rock basis of Keuper Sediments and Alabaster. This leads to the wines’ unique taste and powerful character of minerals.
The Silvaner is grown on the steep slopes of the Western side of the Schlossberg so that it benefits from the evening sun and the westerly winds. This climatic combination leads to great ripeness, exceptional health and concentrated grapes.
The Schlossberg blesses its wines with an extraordinary talent to ripen through age. After an initial short phase of youthful characters, the wines often need three to four years to tone down the strong spicy herbal mineral aroma to then combine fruit and spice flavour with elegance and concentration. This harmonic character remains its strength for well over ten years.
