Freiherr Heyl zu Herrnsheim

Detlev Meyer acquired Nierstein’s Freiherr Heyl estate in 2006 from the Ahr brothers, who had acquired it from pioneering vintner and one-time VDP President Peter von Weymarn. The variable quality that characterized the end of von Weymarn’s tenure persisted under the subsequent regimes, but Felix Peters, appointed cellarmaster when Meyer assumed ownership, has more recently presided over a distinct uptick in quality at sister estate St. Antony and I’m cautiously hopeful now about Heyl’s future.

Today, around 80,000 bottles annually bear the Heyl label, spread over just five wines--of which I tasted three from the 2014 collection. The organic viticultural legacy of von Weymarn has remained an essential part of this winery’s identity; although from what I can judge by having walked some of its vineyards from time to time over the past two decades, notably the monopole Brudersberg, Freiherr Heyl seems to have experienced ups and downs viticulturally as well. Repeatedly, recent bottlings from the top sites here have strayed beyond the limits on residual sugar set for Grosses Gewächs, but often only barely, and weighed in at almost shockingly low levels of alcohol by contemporary Rhine Riesling standards. So there must, happily, be some market for such wines; though commercial considerations aside, hats off to Felix Peters for a gutsy willingness to go his own way and illustrate a style of wine scarcely possible save with German Riesling! (Philipp Wittmann, chairman of the Rheinhessen VDP, justifiably held up Freiherr Heyl to me as an illustration that his organization can be welcoming to deviations from the Grosses Gewächs norm.) The one sweet 2014 I tasted here, an Ölberg Spätlese, displayed an odd combination of detached tartness and diffuseness with a background hinting at less-than-noble botrytis (though Peters swore it was picked to be botrytis-free).