Rhine River Cruise - Castle Vollrads Wine Tasting

The Tower at Schloss Vollrads

The Vineyards

Dining Room with Original Leather Wallpaper

Yet another unique excursion on the Rhine River Cruise...a wine tasting at Schloss Vollrads (Castle Vollrads). We left the ship by motorcoach for a ride into the countryside, passing beautiful farms and vineyards along the way. Though some of the smallest wine-growing regions of Germany, the Rheingau area is world famous for its Rieslings and Castle Vollrads is one of the world's top estates for Rieslings.

The original tower on the estate was built in 1330 on Roman ruins and housed the noble family Von Greiffenclau. The beautiful tower is still standing on the estate today. In 1684 the present manor house was built. We were able to tour several of the rooms during our wine tasting and I was amazed at how well the rooms were preserved.  I loved the chandeliers and the gold leaf leather wallpaper in one of the rooms.  The castle was in the Greiffenclau family for 27 generations (over 800 years) until 1997. The heir at that time had received the estate heavily in debt and was unsuccessful in his attempt to bring the estate out of debt. When the principal bank declared bankruptcy on the estate, Erwien Matuschka Greiffenclau tragically committed suicide in the vineyards of the estate. Today, the bank manages the castle and vineyards.

Wine sales have been documented from the estate beginning in 1211! The Riesling grape is the only variety used in the winery, which is over 200 acres. We were able to sample a few varieties of Castle Vollrads wine - Volratz 1573 (classic dry to off-dry), Kabinett feinherb (medium dry) and Kabinett (fruity/sweet). While I am certainly no connoisseur of wine, the tour of the castle did provide me with a great education on Rieslings and I really enjoyed tasting the different wines!