Germany · Pfalz

Weingut Schenk Siebert

A family estate in Grünstadt-Sausenheim, northern Pfalz, where a winegrowing history traced to 1675 meets dry Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet–Madeleine Noir.

The producer

Weingut Schenk Siebert is based in Sausenheim, also known as Leiningerland, in the northern and cooler reaches of Pfalz. The family traces its viticulture to 1675 and places sustainable vineyard management at the centre of its work, with Gerhard, Hildegard, Christoph and Johannes making decisions together.

The range moves from Riesling Trocken to Chardonnay R and Kulturpärlor, made from Cabernet and Madeleine Noir. Chardonnay R 2023 is the clearest taste reference: ripe yellow apple, pear and citrus zest meet nutty spice, a creamy mid-palate and fresh acidity, giving the dry wine weight without heaviness.

Known for

Northern-Pfalz family wines spanning dry Riesling, textured Chardonnay and a Cabernet–Madeleine Noir bottling.

Notable facts

The story

Experience Brought Home

Christoph and Johannes Siebert worked at wineries in South Africa and California before returning to the family estate in Grünstadt-Sausenheim. Back at Leiningerstrasse, Gerhard and Hildegard already brought decades of winegrowing experience to the work. The family describes its decisions as collective, so the two returnees joined an established working group rather than stepping into a one-person cellar. Their experience abroad became part of an estate whose family traces its own vine-growing history to 1675 and remains based in Sausenheim, northern Pfalz.

From the atlas

Weingut Schenk Siebert

At A Glance

Weingut Schenk Siebert is a family estate in Grünstadt-Sausenheim, northern Pfalz, with a family winegrowing history traced to 1675. Its documented bottles include dry Riesling, Chardonnay R and Kulturpärlor, a wine made from Cabernet and Madeleine Noir; that spread makes the estate a useful place to encounter both familiar white grapes and a less usual red-grape pairing.

The family places sustainable vineyard management and collective decisions at the centre of its work. Gerhard and Hildegard bring decades of experience, while Christoph and Johannes returned from winery work in South Africa and California; the consequence is a family operation whose local history and outside experience meet in the same Sausenheim cellar.

The Producer

At Leiningerstr. 16 in Grünstadt-Sausenheim, Schenk Siebert works from a family base rather than a brand assembled around one cuvée. The family describes itself as Grünstadt’s oldest winegrowing family and says it has cultivated vines since 1675, so Riesling, Chardonnay and Cabernet–Madeleine Noir bottles arrive with an unusually long local thread behind their labels.

That continuity does not mean one generation works alone. The estate presents its wines as family craftsmanship, with decisions made together; Gerhard and Hildegard’s long experience sits alongside Christoph and Johannes’s work abroad. In practical terms, a bottle carries a shared family approach rather than a single winemaker’s signature.

Place

Sausenheim is a small wine-growing area in northern Pfalz, also called Leiningerland. Schenk Siebert describes it as the northernmost and coolest part of Pfalz, placing its dry Riesling and Chardonnay in a part of the region where ripening happens under a cooler frame than much of the Pfalz.

That location helps explain why grape name matters on the label. Riesling brings its own citrus-led, acid-driven frame; Chardonnay can take a broader, creamier shape; Cabernet with Madeleine Noir moves the range into red-wine territory. The place is one setting, but the grapes give it different forms in the glass.

Soil And Site

The family points to limestone terroir in northern Pfalz as part of the estate’s ground story. Limestone is the physical detail that connects Sausenheim to the vines: it keeps the focus on where the fruit is grown rather than treating “Pfalz” as a complete explanation of the wine.

Schenk Siebert also puts sustainable vineyard management at the centre of its work. Without parcel, slope or harvest details, the useful conclusion is modest: the site is handled as a living long-term resource, and the bottles should be read as estate wines rooted in northern-Pfalz limestone rather than as generic varietal wines.

Story

The estate’s story is built from continuity and return. A family that traces its winegrowing work to 1675 remains in Grünstadt-Sausenheim, while Christoph and Johannes left to work at wineries in South Africa and California before bringing ideas back home. Their return places outside cellar and vineyard experience inside a family business with deep local habits.

The result is not a claim that old and new methods have been blended in a particular way; those details are not documented. It is a more concrete family arrangement: Gerhard and Hildegard contribute decades of experience, Christoph and Johannes contribute experience gained abroad, and the wines are presented as the outcome of collective decisions.

Vineyards And Cellar

Sustainable vineyard management is the estate’s stated starting point, so the vineyard comes before any attempt to describe the wines as a cellar style. That matters because the documented range moves from dry Riesling to Chardonnay and Cabernet–Madeleine Noir: fruit from one northern-Pfalz setting must be handled across very different grape varieties.

The family’s collective working method is equally important in the cellar story. There is no supplied evidence for fermentation vessel, barrel regime, lees time or extraction, so those details should not be guessed from a wine’s texture. What is known is that the family treats each wine as shared work, with local experience and overseas winery experience both present in the decision-making.

Wines

The range has three confirmed reference points. Riesling Trocken 2023 is a dry Riesling, the estate’s direct route into Germany’s defining white grape. Chardonnay R appears in 2022 and 2023 vintages, showing that Chardonnay has a continuing place in the range rather than being a one-off bottling.

Kulturpärlor widens the picture further. Its Cabernet–Madeleine Noir composition moves away from the white-wine frame of Riesling and Chardonnay, making the range more than a sequence of classical Pfalz whites. The named wines establish a practical architecture: dry Riesling for grape-led freshness, Chardonnay R for a fuller white-wine texture, and Kulturpärlor for the estate’s documented red-grape combination.

In The Glass

Chardonnay R 2023 is dry and leads with ripe yellow apple, pear and a touch of citrus zest. Nutty notes and light spice follow, while a creamy palate gives the wine weight; fresh acidity keeps that texture from becoming heavy and carries the fruit through the finish.

The wine’s maturation is present but integrated rather than dominant. That leaves the apple, pear and citrus fruit audible, with the nutty, spicy detail adding shape around it. The result is a dry Chardonnay with creaminess in the middle, freshness through the palate and a finish that extends beyond the first fruit impression.

For Riesling Trocken 2023 and Kulturpärlor, the supplied evidence confirms grape, vintage and composition but does not provide comparable tasting notes. Their labels therefore offer a reliable grape-and-style starting point, while Chardonnay R is the bottle with the documented aroma, texture and structural detail.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Chardonnay R 2023. It is a dry Pfalz Chardonnay whose ripe yellow apple, pear, citrus zest, nutty notes and gentle spice give immediate sensory detail, while its creamy texture and fresh acidity show how body and lift can work together in one white wine.

It also introduces the estate without pretending to settle the whole range. Chardonnay R sits beside a dry Riesling and a Cabernet–Madeleine Noir wine, so it shows Schenk Siebert’s willingness to work beyond one grape while remaining tied to its Grünstadt-Sausenheim base. Serve it with roast chicken, mushrooms, fish or pasta with a pale sauce, where its fruit, creaminess and acidity have room to move.

Anecdote

Christoph and Johannes Siebert each worked at wineries far from Grünstadt-Sausenheim: one part of their experience was gained in South Africa and another in California. They then returned to the family estate on Leiningerstrasse, where Gerhard and Hildegard already brought decades of winegrowing experience. The family describes the work at Schenk Siebert as collective, so the two returnees joined a working group rather than taking over a finished story. Their overseas winery experience became part of a family operation that traces its own vine-growing history back to 1675 and remains based in Sausenheim.

Final Word

Schenk Siebert is worth seeking out for the contrast contained in its labels: a long-running Sausenheim family estate, northern-Pfalz limestone as its site frame, and a range that moves from dry Riesling to creamy Chardonnay and Cabernet–Madeleine Noir. Chardonnay R 2023 supplies the most complete first taste of that work.

Sources

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