Whether in the vineyard or the winery, red-head Raimund Pruem’s scarlet crest is in evidence everywhere for he personally cultivates his wines every step of the way. The overwhelming portion of his vines are ungrafted or autochthon Riesling of which up to 70% are situated on steep inclines. Nature itself helps keep production down based on the limited amount of water on these barren slopes. There is no irrigation here. These Riesling vines’ roots extend deeply into the ground, as much as nine meters . That’s more than 27-feet ! Each vine draws water from the extremely rich Devonian slate below which lends its unmistakable mineral flavor, pure terroir taste.

The extreme inclines, up to 45%, precludes machine cultivation so that up to this very day, all of the vines in these vineyards are traditionally hand-cultivated. This is very arduous work.

The harvest itself means more than just a lot of justifiable work all of which is essential: Each harvesting procedure must be executed in an orderly, timely, measured manner. Harvesting techniques include the actual picking and sorting of all the clusters by hand; selection of individual vines, of single clusters and the gentle separation of the solitary grapes or berries from their stems and connecting vines forming the cluster. This is known as “entrappen.” Next comes the hours-long preparation of the must or “mash” requiring whole-grape pressing and low-temperature slow fermentation at temperatures ranging from 4’C – 11’C extending from days up to several months all carried out in the cold cellar . Cellar temperature is also a contributing towards high quality final results.

After fermentation is complete, the young, immature wines then ripen in old oak barrels until bottling time. Each and every barrel gets Pruem’s personal professional attention focusing on quality. The Red Head has a super-acute sense of smell and taste: he immediately detects any – even the very slightest – variation. All of his wines, extending from the most basic Guts- or Basic Vineyard Qualitaets-wein up to the most opulent, ultra-sweet, dry berry selection rarities, get the exact same treatment and undergo rigid quality control. That’s why his dry wines are renowned for their clarity, fulsome flavor, and brilliant freshness whereas the semi-dry and mild Pruem wines are distinguished for their elegance and balance.