Germany · Rheinhessen

Weingut Groh

A fourth-generation family estate in Bechtheim, Rheinhessen, where Axel Groh makes a broad varietal range shaped by early Chardonnay planting and selected low-yield vineyards.

The producer

Heinrich Groh founded the estate in Bechtheim in 1899; Axel Groh now runs it as owner and winemaker. The family’s vineyards lie in Bechtheim and Alsheim, and in selected sites he limits production to no more than 0.3 litres per square metre—reported as one-third of the usual yield—focusing the harvest on fewer grapes.

Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot varieties, Silvaner, Scheurebe, Sauvignon Blanc, rosé and sparkling wine give Groh more than one route through Rheinhessen. Groh Riesling Trocken 2023 is made from 100% Riesling and dry in style, so acidity, fruit, texture and finish carry the glass rather than sweetness. Chardonnay adds a fuller textural comparison and recalls the estate’s unusual early commitment to the grape.

Known for

Early Chardonnay in Rheinhessen, alongside dry Riesling and a wide varietal range.

Notable facts

The story

Why Groh Became Chardonnay-Groh

In 1993, Weingut Groh was already cultivating Chardonnay, at a time when the grape was still unusual in Germany. The choice stood apart within a Rheinhessen estate whose family history in Bechtheim reached back to Heinrich Groh’s founding in 1899. Chardonnay did not remain a minor vineyard detail: during the 1990s, the variety became closely associated with the estate and people began calling it “Chardonnay-Groh”. The name attached a grape to the family winery itself. It referred to the Chardonnay Groh had been growing since 1993, while the estate continued to work with Riesling, Pinot varieties and other wines from vineyards in Bechtheim and Alsheim.

From the atlas

Weingut Groh

At A Glance

Weingut Groh is a fourth-generation family estate in Bechtheim, Rheinhessen, founded by Heinrich Groh in 1899. Axel Groh now owns and makes the wines, drawing on vineyards in Bechtheim and Alsheim; the result is a range that moves from dry Riesling and Chardonnay to Pinot varieties, Silvaner, Scheurebe, rosé and sparkling wine.

The Producer

The estate works from Deichelgasse 8 in Bechtheim, where the Groh family has made wine since Heinrich Groh founded the business in 1899. Axel Groh is both proprietor and winemaker, with training in viticulture and cellar management, so vineyard decisions and the finished bottle sit in the same pair of hands. That continuity matters most in a range where Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot varieties each ask for a different balance of fruit, acidity and texture.

Place

Groh’s vineyards lie in the neighbouring Rheinhessen municipalities of Bechtheim and Alsheim. Rather than presenting one grape as the sole answer to this address, the estate uses those sites for a broad set of wines: Riesling and Silvaner alongside Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot varieties, rosé, Scheurebe and sparkling wine. The place therefore appears through selection and range as much as through a single named vineyard.

Soil And Site

The supplied record does not attach named soil types or slopes to Groh’s wines, but it does show a practical site decision: in some vineyards, Axel Groh limits production to no more than 0.3 litres per square metre. That figure is described as one-third of the usual yield, leaving fewer grapes to carry the season’s ripeness into the press.

Story

The Groh story begins with Heinrich Groh’s 1899 foundation in Bechtheim and continues through four family generations to Axel Groh’s current work as owner and winemaker. It is not a frozen family-history label: Chardonnay had entered the vineyards by 1993, when the grape was still unusual in Germany. The decision widened the cellar’s working vocabulary beyond the established local white varieties, and Chardonnay became sufficiently associated with the estate that “Chardonnay-Groh” circulated as its nickname during the 1990s.

That older decision still sits beside a current, deliberately wide portfolio. A bottle from Groh may be a dry Riesling, but it may also be Chardonnay, a Pinot wine, Silvaner, Sauvignon Blanc, Scheurebe, rosé or sparkling wine. The common thread is a family estate in Bechtheim that has kept adding grapes without abandoning its original base.

Vineyards And Cellar

For selected vineyards, the 0.3-litre-per-square-metre ceiling is the clearest documented viticultural choice. Lower crop load is not presented as a rule for every parcel, but where it is used it concentrates the grower’s attention on a smaller harvest. In the bottle, that choice is relevant to fruit weight and concentration rather than to a uniform estate style.

Axel Groh’s technical training joins the vineyard work to the cellar, while the producer’s regional description combines tradition, technology and near-natural cultivation. Those terms should be read through the wines themselves: clean fruit in a dry Riesling, the fuller potential of Chardonnay, and different tannin or body expectations when Pinot varieties replace white grapes.

Wines

Groh’s range is built across grapes rather than around a single cuvée hierarchy. Riesling provides the dry white reference point, while Chardonnay carries the estate’s most distinctive historical association. Silvaner and Scheurebe extend the white-wine selection; Sauvignon Blanc brings another aromatic white-grape route; Pinot varieties introduce red or pale-fruited possibilities; rosé and sparkling wine complete the spread.

The named current bottle is Groh Riesling Trocken 2023, made entirely from Riesling. Its 100% grape composition separates it from a blended white and makes Riesling’s acidity, dry profile and fruit character the central concerns. Elsewhere in the range, Chardonnay offers a different textural question, while Pinot varieties shift attention toward body, tannin and red-fruit or savoury shape.

In The Glass

Start with the contrast written into the range. Groh Riesling Trocken 2023 is dry and wholly Riesling, so sweetness is not the main structural element; acidity, fruit, body and finish carry the wine instead. That makes it a useful glass for noticing how a dry white can feel light on its feet without being merely dilute.

Chardonnay offers a different lens. The grape’s place in Groh’s vineyards since 1993 makes it the bottle family to compare with Riesling for texture and weight, while Pinot wines bring tannin into the conversation and sparkling wine introduces mousse. Across the portfolio, the tasting task is not to force every wine into one house flavour, but to notice what each grape does with dry fruit, acidity, body and finish.

A Bottle To Understand It

Begin with Groh Riesling Trocken 2023. It is a dry wine made from 100% Riesling, listed in Sweden by Systembolaget, and it puts a core grape of German wine at the centre of the glass without the complication of a blend. Look for the relationship between dry fruit, acidity, texture and finish; that is the structural frame Riesling brings to the estate’s broader selection. Once that frame is clear, Chardonnay shows why Groh acquired its 1990s nickname.

Anecdote

In 1993, Weingut Groh was already cultivating Chardonnay. At the time, the grape was still unusual in Germany, so it stood apart from the more expected varieties in a Rheinhessen vineyard. The planting did not remain a private cellar detail. During the 1990s, the estate became known as “Chardonnay-Groh”, attaching a grape directly to the family name. The nickname belongs to a winery founded in Bechtheim in 1899, but it came from a later vineyard choice: Chardonnay was being grown there by 1993 and was visible enough in the estate’s wines to become the phrase people used for Groh.

Final Word

Groh offers a useful Rheinhessen discovery because the wines begin with a clear family address and then branch through grapes. Take the dry 2023 Riesling first for its 100% Riesling frame, then follow the Chardonnay connection back to the vineyard decision that made “Chardonnay-Groh” stick.

Sources

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