Weingut Closheim

Weingut Closheim - Outstanding Vinothek in Nahe

The daughter certainly had a mind of her own. One day, Anette Closheim left the family's 150-year-old winery on the Nahe to travel around the world. Eventually she came back. In the meantime, she had learned that it is serendipitous to have the skill, sensitivity and courage to understand a tradition that has matured over centuries and at the same time, to understand that such good fortune has to be conquered anew every day.

Isn't it time, she wondered, to apply such knowledge to local wine? And wouldn’t Langenlonsheim be a place to take that plunge? The father Konrad Closheim was skeptical. Not fundamentally averse, not at all, but experienced enough not to expect too wild leaps from his local customers. It must have been late one or the other evening before the perfect formula was found: You do your thing, I do mine, but everyone helps each other wherever it is necessary. There are not many families who manage to make such a transition.

No, she didn't want to reinvent the wheel, stressed Anette Closheim. Everything was running wonderfully well. But she wanted to try something new, be brave, put everything into quality and leave routine behind. For the wine, that meant: a more selective harvest, half the quantity, and for the aroma, well, maybe not double it but clearly accentuate it. Allow new grape varieties, work more with wood in the cellar, rely on spontaneous fermentation; the list of innovations was long. And it was rewarded: Riesling Discovery of the Year on her first attempt, promotion to the league of winemakers where top gastronomy knocks on the door, new design, a new philosophy, a separate range of now 15 wines that bears her name. A woman's name.

The former wine press directly opposite the church was actually a very suitable place to express what had changed and what remained. The local winegrowers once pressed their grapes here; the now vacant building had been a meeting place for the community. Anette Closheim had the 500-year-old walls restored and meticulously exposed the half-timbering inside.

What the Mainz architect Beate Lemmer brought out in the design was a surprisingly modern structure, airy heights with a dramatic latticework of spectacular lightness. Any resemblance to the specifications for her wine, adds the winemaker, is entirely intentional.

The heart of the new vinothek is a flat cube, which adjoins the restored old building and connects it with the family's winery. At the centre of this glass and steel laced cube, open at the front to the street and at the back to the courtyard, stands the elongated presentation table for wine tasting - an altar with a view to the church opposite.

Opening Time

Monday - Friday: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, 1:00 – 6:00 pm

Saturday: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm