Summary
Weingut Spiess in Bechtheim is one of those Rheinhessen estates whose history is far older than the winegrowing they stand for today. The Spiess family has farmed land in Bechtheim since 1509; over the generations, the mixed agricultural holding turned into a specialised wine estate. The farm still carries its old name, Riederbacherhof. Around 30 hectares are under vine in the warm south of Rheinhessen, just under a third of them planted with Riesling, plus Pinot varieties and red wine. The estate is run by brothers Christian and Johannes Spiess, who divide vineyard and cellar clearly between them.
History
The Spiess family story in Bechtheim begins in 1509. What is documented then is not a wine estate in the modern sense but a farm – arable land, livestock, and vines as one branch among several. That is exactly how Rheinhessen worked for centuries: wine was part of a mixed holding, not its purpose.
The move from mixed farm to specialised wine estate is therefore the real thread running through this house. It did not happen through one spectacular break but across generations that step by step converted land, replanted varieties and built out the cellar, until wine eventually carried the whole business. The Riederbacherhof remained the anchor throughout: address, headquarters and name in one.
The most recent generational handover came in two stages. In 2011, Johannes Spiess took charge of the cellar and the ageing of the wines. In 2014 his brother Christian Spiess joined him and has since been responsible for viticulture and all work outside. That division of labour is more than an organisational detail: it allows vineyard and cellar to be pursued rigorously at the same time, without either becoming an afterthought.
Location & Terroir
Bechtheim lies in the south of Rheinhessen, in one of the warmest stretches of Germany's largest wine region. The estate's vines stand mostly on south-facing slopes – the aspect that at this latitude can make the difference between a lean vintage and a fully ripe one. Warmth and sunshine hours are not in short supply here, which suits the Pinot varieties and Spätburgunder, and gives Riesling ripeness without hardness in good years.
The holdings are spread across five Bechtheim sites: Heiligkreuz, Hasensprung, Rosengarten, Geyersberg and Stein. That spread is practically valuable. It allows each variety to be planted where it belongs, and it spreads risk in difficult years – an advantage an estate concentrated on a single parcel does not have.
Style & Philosophy
Stylistically the estate can be summed up in two words: clean and clear. The whites are precisely made, without showmanship, emphasising fruit and structure rather than sweetness or oak. The reds, by contrast, are about character – Spätburgunder and Dornfelder are not trimmed for easy charm but allowed to show contour.
Behind that sits a modern approach that does not deny the estate's agricultural roots but explicitly respects them. A farm worked by the same family for more than 500 years inevitably thinks in longer spans than single vintages. The clearest expression of that is certification to Fair and Green since 2014: a sustainability standard that assesses not only the vineyard work but the entire business, including economic and social criteria.
Notable Sites & Wines
The range rests on three pillars: Riesling, the Pinot family and Spätburgunder.
- Riesling – just under a third of the vineyard area and the estate's defining variety
- Weißburgunder and Grauburgunder – the white Burgundian line
- Chardonnay – rounding out the white range
- Spätburgunder – the red focus
- Dornfelder – the sturdy, dark-fruited Rheinhessen addition
The grapes come from the Bechtheim sites Heiligkreuz, Hasensprung, Rosengarten, Geyersberg and Stein.
Awards
A well-documented snapshot comes from the ratings around the 2015 vintage. Gault&Millau 2015 listed the estate with two red grapes, Eichelmann 2015 awarded three stars, and there were mentions in Falstaff and Der Feinschmecker the same year. Critics described the wines at the time as finer and more elegant than ever – a sign that the handover completed in 2011 and 2014 was already showing in the glass. These ratings refer explicitly to that vintage snapshot and should be read as context, not as a current guide standing.
