Best vineyard views details

The Sondersberg Viewpoint, which rises above the wine-growing village of Dernau, offers spectacular views of the Ahr Valley. Dernau’s oldest wine estate, the Schlosshof, had the viewing platform built on the Sondersberg, in the middle of the Schieferlay location. From there, the Best Vineyard View for the Ahr 2016 takes in steep vineyard slopes right up to the Krausberg. In the foreground, you can see the Schieferlay top location; Pfarrwingert and Hardtberg follow on further down the Ahr. “Lay” is an ancient term still commonly used in the Rhenish dialect to mean “rock” or “shale,” and the name Schieferlay (“Schiefer” means “shale” in German) refers directly to the vineyard’s soil. The Dernauer Schieferlay vineyard spans an area of 21 ha and faces southeast; 15 ha are planted with Spätburgunder grapes. This predominantly steep hillside vineyard reaches altitudes of between 125 m and 260 m.