Willi Schaefer is a German wine grower and producer based in Graach, in the wine-growing region of Mosel, Germany.

History

The Schaefer family believe their viticulture roots in Graach extend back to 1121, with documentation from 1590. The current winery came into the hands of the Schaefer family in 1950 and Willi Schaefer took over as the winemaker in 1971. Willi Schaefer has been a member of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter since 1993. In 1997, Schaefer was awarded "Newcomer of the Year" by the Gault Millau wine guide. Since 2001 Willi Schaefer's son Christoph, and Christoph's wife Andrea have been assisting with running the winery.

Vineyards and wine

Willi Schaefer works with 3 hectares of

Riesling Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...

vineyards, including vines in Graacher Himmelreich, Graacher Domprobst and Wehlener Sonnenuhr. Wine writers

Stephen Brook Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

and Stephan Reinhardt are of the opinion that the best wines from this estate are usually produced from the Graacher Domprobst parcels. The oldest vines are around 60 years of age and 60-70% of the vines are ungrafted, resulting in low yields. The wines ferment and are matured for around six months on lees in old 1000 litre foudres before bottling. Around 2000 to 3000 cases of wine are produced each year. Only a very small number are made in a

Trocken ''Trocken'', German for ''dry'', is a classification of German wine that indicates a wine that is dry rather than off-dry (''halbtrocken''), sweeter (''lieblich'') or sweet (''süß''). ''Trocken'' wines are not devoid of residual sugar, but have, ...

or off-dry style and Schaefer avoids the presence of too much botrytis influence in his sweet wines where permissible.

References

External links

VDP Profile
{{portal bar, Wine

Schaefer Schaefer is an alternative spelling and cognate for the German word ''schäfer'', meaning 'shepherd', which itself descends from the Old High German '' scāphare''. Variants "Shaefer", "Schäfer" (a standardized spelling in many German-speaking ...