There are not many wineries in the world that can trace the owner’s roots in the area back to 1057, but Castell can proudly make that claim. With the first mention of vineyards dating back to 1224 and with documented plantings dating to 1266, Castell has been at the forefront of winemaking in Franken for over 745 years.

Castell planted the first Silvaner “Austrian” cuttings in 1659. The approach of using the unique terroir of their 175 acres creates a portfolio of Silvaner wines unparalleled across the wine world. Key to this diversity are the site-specific plantings which highlight the complexity and age-worthiness of this most versatile of grapes.

Castell delayed their harvests to enhance the development and complexity of their wines. The results are seven distinct and classified vineyards which include:

– Casteller Schlossberg, a VDP.Grosse Lage,
– four VDP.ErsteLagen, Hohnart, Kugelspiel, Trautberg and Reitsteig which are also solely estate owned
– two shared VDP.ErsteLagen, Kirchberg and Bausch.

As if these vineyards with their site-specific plantings and farming were not enough to differentiate their bottlings, Castell goes the extra step of curating their barrels from oak trees in the forests surrounding the village of Castell. In short, Castell has created an ecosystem, from vineyard to barrel, focused on the same terroir throughout. The resulting wines mirror this terroir-centric philosophy and may just be the purest expression of Silvaner available today!