Germany · Mosel

Weingut Hoffmann-Simon

A Piesport family estate making Riesling-led Mosel wines from six sites across four villages, with organic farming and a clear focus on named Riesling bottlings.

The producer

Weingut Hoffmann-Simon farms 10 hectares across Piesport, Klüsserath, Köwerich and Maring. Riesling covers 6.5 hectares, so acidity, citrus fruit and dry structure run through the range; Müller-Thurgau occupies a smaller 1.5 hectares. Dieter Hoffmann joined the estate in 1994 after studying viticulture and oenology at Geisenheim, then became owner in 1999.

The estate has followed organic-viticulture guidelines since 2012 and released its first certified organic vintage in 2015. Its no-fining approach and natural alcohol leave fruit, acidity and texture to carry the wines. Klüsserather Bruderschaft Riesling brings a named Klüsserath vineyard to the label, while Blauschiefer offers a more spice-led, structured Riesling profile.

Known for

Organic, Riesling-led Mosel wines from Piesport, Klüsserath, Köwerich and Maring.

Notable facts

The story

From New York Back To Piesport

In 1993 and 1994, Dieter Hoffmann spent time in New York as an intern at the German Wine Information Bureau. He had passed his diploma examination in viticulture and oenology at Geisenheim in 1993, then returned to Piesport in 1994 to join the family operation fully. His work covered both vineyards and cellar, the two sides of Hoffmann-Simon that meet in bottles such as Klüsserather Bruderschaft and Blauschiefer Riesling. In 1999, five years after returning from New York, he became owner of the estate at Kettergasse 24.

From the atlas

Weingut Hoffmann-Simon

At A Glance

Weingut Hoffmann-Simon is a 10-hectare family estate in Piesport, with vineyards spread across Piesport, Klüsserath, Köwerich and Maring. Riesling occupies 6.5 hectares and leads the range; Müller-Thurgau covers another 1.5 hectares. The result is a Mosel range in which a vineyard name such as Klüsserather Bruderschaft narrows the address on the label, while Riesling supplies acidity, citrus fruit and a long, dry line.

The estate has followed organic-viticulture guidelines since 2012 and released its first certified organic vintage in 2015. In the cellar it reports no fining and natural alcohol, so the wines are framed around fruit from the slopes rather than a heavily worked finish.

The Producer

The estate is based at Kettergasse 24 in Piesport, in a house dating from the 16th century. Its name joins two families: Carl Hoffmann, a Piesport agricultural-machinery dealer, and Maria Simon, a winegrower from Maring. That family connection reaches into the vineyard map today, because the estate’s six sites lie across Piesport, Maring, Klüsserath and Köwerich rather than around one village alone.

Dieter Hoffmann joined the family operation fully in 1994, taking responsibility for vineyard and cellar work after studying viticulture and oenology at Geisenheim; he passed his diploma examination in 1993 and became owner in 1999. His training sits behind a Riesling-led estate where site names, grape and cellar handling are meant to remain legible in the bottle.

Place

Piesport is the estate’s home, but Hoffmann-Simon’s vines extend along several Mosel communities. This matters because a village or vineyard name is more than decoration on a Riesling label: it identifies where the fruit was grown, while the grape provides the shared thread of high natural acidity and citrus-led freshness across the range.

Klüsserather Bruderschaft is a Mosel vineyard in Klüsserath, and Hoffmann-Simon is among its producers. A bottle carrying that name is therefore a vineyard-addressed Riesling, not simply a generic Mosel wine; its narrower origin helps explain why it is treated separately from Blauschiefer in the estate’s range.

Soil And Site

The estate holds steep-slope vineyards, a physical setting that changes the work before grapes reach the cellar. Slopes drain readily and expose vines differently through the day, so ripening and harvest decisions become central to keeping Riesling fruit lively while allowing enough body and fruit weight for a complete palate.

The name Blauschiefer appears on one of the estate’s Rieslings, while Bruderschaft names a specific Klüsserath vineyard. Together they show two useful ways a Mosel label can speak: one bottle presents a named expression in the range, while the other carries a defined vineyard address. Both are confirmed as 100% Riesling in the listed 2022 and 2024 releases.

Story

Hoffmann-Simon began with a marriage and continued through several family handovers. After the war, Carl and Maria’s son Erwin Hoffmann took over with his wife Irmine, who came from Klüsserath’s Regnery winegrowing family. From the 1970s they developed the estate’s direct sales, bringing the wines from vineyards in several Mosel villages to the Piesport house under one family name.

Dieter Hoffmann’s arrival gave that inherited operation a new vineyard-and-cellar lead. Since becoming owner in 1999, he has worked with a modest, Riesling-heavy holding rather than a single-site estate, so the range can move between broadly named wines and bottles tied more closely to a vineyard such as Klüsserather Bruderschaft.

Vineyards And Cellar

Organic conversion began in 2012 and reached certified status with the 2015 vintage. For a Riesling estate on steep holdings, that choice places vineyard condition at the centre of the work: healthy fruit must arrive with sufficient ripeness and acidity because those are the elements that determine citrus character, body and finish in the glass.

The cellar reports no fining and natural alcohol. Those choices do not prescribe one flavour for every cuvée, but they establish a consistent approach: the wine’s fruit, acidity and extract are allowed to carry the palate, while individual vineyard wines can show different weight, spice and development over time.

Wines

Riesling is the backbone of the range, with 6.5 of the estate’s 10 hectares planted to it. Müller-Thurgau is the smaller companion grape, covering 1.5 hectares, while the named Rieslings provide the clearest view of how Hoffmann-Simon separates bottle roles. Klüsserather Bruderschaft is the vineyard-specific wine; Blauschiefer is another named Riesling with its own structural profile.

The available assessments describe Bruderschaft with fruit and creamy texture held in a taut shape, while Blauschiefer is noted for structure, spice and capacity to develop. That makes the contrast practical: Bruderschaft brings a more detailed vineyard name and a creamier fruit register; Blauschiefer brings spice, grip and a firmer frame. Both need food or time in the glass more than sweetness to create interest.

In The Glass

The Rieslings are best understood in sequence rather than through one aroma alone. Bruderschaft opens around ripe fruit, then carries a creamy mid-palate; acidity pulls the wine into a dry, taut finish, keeping the fruit from becoming broad. Its structure also suggests that the bottle can gain complexity with age rather than offering all of its detail immediately.

Blauschiefer moves toward spice and firmer structure. The palate has more grip and a steadier line, with Riesling acidity keeping the body in motion through the finish. Across both wines, citrus fruit, dry texture and mineral-savoury detail belong to Riesling grown in Mosel slope sites, but the named bottlings shape those elements differently.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the 2024 Klüsserather Bruderschaft Riesling. It is confirmed as 100% Riesling and carries a specific Klüsserath vineyard on the label, bringing the estate’s four-village footprint into focus through one defined address. Expect fruit first, then a creamy feel through the middle, with acidity tightening the palate and extending the dry finish. That combination of fruit weight, texture and acidity makes it a useful first bottle because it shows both Mosel Riesling’s lift and Hoffmann-Simon’s site-led range.

Anecdote

In 1993 and 1994, Dieter Hoffmann spent time in New York as an intern at the German Wine Information Bureau. He had already completed his Geisenheim diploma examination in 1993, then returned to Piesport in 1994 and entered the family operation fully. His responsibilities were the two parts of the estate that determine what finally reaches the bottle: vineyard work and the cellar. Five years later, in 1999, he became owner of Hoffmann-Simon. The route ran from a German wine school to a New York office and back to the steep Mosel holdings around Piesport, Klüsserath, Köwerich and Maring.

Final Word

Hoffmann-Simon offers Mosel Riesling through several village addresses rather than one uniform style. Follow the grape from the estate’s Piesport base to Klüsserather Bruderschaft: slope-grown fruit supplies acidity and weight, while the vineyard name gives the bottle a particular place to hold onto.

Sources

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