Rheinhessen, Germany
This 600 year-old family estate is nominally in the Hessen but its soils, with their complex amalgam of porphyry, quarzite, and loam, bear more resemblance to the Nahe, which is just over the hill. Hartmut Bernhard, the current proprietor, is an instinctive wine-grower and maker. He knows exactly what he is doing without intellectualizing it. The estate has gone from strength to strength in recent years.