If one digs deep into the past to find early comments on the wines from Siefersheim, one may be surprised to discover a press release from the 1920's, which reads as follows:
"...A total of 43 "Halbstück" barrels (approx. 600 litres each) of the 1926 vintage as well as 650 bottles of the 1921 vintage of our own growths from the best vineyard sites in Siefersheim were offered on auction... it is well known that the auctions are attended by representatives of the greatest and most luxurious hotels of our largest cities, as well as by the most renowned wine merchants...the wines presented themselves at a level that is the equal of the very best the Rheingau has to offer..."
In the course of the next few decades, no similarly positive publications reflecting the high reputation have survived, and there appear to be different reasons for this. The reputation of Siefersheim wines, which was once so good, threatened to be completely forgotten. This was largely related to the rate at which large parts of previously completely cultivated vineyard sites, particularly the Heerkretz, came to lie fallow.
It was a long journey from the first beginnings of selling bottled wine in the mid-1980's via the extensive replantings of previously fallow parcels of vineyard and the modernisation work in the cellar during the 1990's until eventually in 2006 the well-known German wine journalist G. Eichelmann stated:
"...who would have known the town of Siefersheim a few years ago, who would have known the porphyry-dominated sites? It was Daniel Wagner who made the Heerkretz and Höllberg sites famous with their delightfully powerful Riesling wines with their prominent minerality, the flagships of his immensely strong range..."
Only a few years later, Fine magazine published a sort of brief retrospective of our development, their words could not have been more appropriate:
"...while the current success is impressive, this is by no means a miracle. All the Wagner family has succeeded in doing is to use the potential of their sites better, vintage after vintage - with skill, hard work, ambition as well as feeling and a great deal of knowledge concerning the creative processes of wine production..."
In the meantime, the quantity and bandwidth of publications on our estate and our wines have increased to such a degree that we can only reproduce a small cross-section here. In our "Media Mutterings" we have brought together fragments of many different voices and opinions, in order to place the focus on external statements. These are the small but very important beacons of light from outside that reach us, and allow us to see that our hard work and achievements are very much appreciated not only by the circle of trusted friends and loyal customers, but also by highly regarded critics beyond that.