| Region of production: | Saar |
| Winery Location: | Saarburg |
| Year Established: | While the family has been producing wines in Saarburg for over 260 years, the current incarnation of the estate dates to 1947 when Marianne Geltz married Fritz Zilliken. |
Vineyard Holdings
11 ha total, planted to 100% Riesling
- Saarburger Rausch: 10 ha; soil is layered slate with Diasbas, a green-colored volcanic soil
- Ockfener Bockstein: 0.9 ha; soil is grey slate and sandstone mixed with quartzite, gravel and intermittent yellow earth
Top Wines Produced
- Saarburger Rausch Rieslings: Spätlese, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, GG
- Saarburger Rausch Riesling Diabas (halbtrocken sibling to their GG)
- Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett
Average Total Production
- 84,000 bottles
Summary
Ferdinand Geltz (1851-1925) was the Royal Prussian District Forester (hence the namesake, Forstmeister Geltz), concurrently running this high-quality estate – he even helped found the VDP in 1910. When he passed, the property was split between his daughters Ella and Antoinette, and while Ella only received 40% of the property, it was her daughter Marianne and son-in-law Fritz who would ultimately bring the most regard to the family name. Their son Hans-Joachim (Hanno) Zilliken today runs the property with his daughter, Dorothee. She joined in 2007 after graduating from the university at Geisenheim and spending two years at Schloss Vollarads in the Rheingau. Today, Zilliken focuses on the Rausch vineyard northwest of their home in Saarburg.
Style & Vinification Techniques
Zilliken makes exclusively Riesling, 20% of which are dry wines and 80% sweet. They use mostly ambient yeast for fermentation (up to 10% cultured yeast). The wines go through fermentation and aging in old German oak fuder in their cellar, which is the deepest in the Saar at three levels below ground and which stays at a cool, constant 48° F while housing some 80 fuder. The house also holds vintages back for extended aging in their cellar. Between 1999 and 2008, the estate made some changes in their vineyard work, replanting seven ha of the Rausch vineyard as well as training their vines onto wires as opposed to poles. This, in conjunction with climate change, has led to a shift in the house style, from a lighter and more minerally style in the 1990s to a richer, more tropical-fruited style in the present. Yields are restricted to 50 hl/ha.
Producer Website: Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken