Schloss Johannisberg: no harvest without permission

The monks were led by Prince Abbot Constantin von Buttlar. However, the Prince Abbot did not live at Schloss Johannisberg, but rather in the Fulda monastery, which is 150 kilometres away. He controlled the fate of Schloss Johannisberg from afar. In 1720, he gave the monks a very unusual task. He had all the vines pulled out and the vineyard replanted. And with only Riesling. At the time, this was a real sensation that caused a great deal of excitement in the area. Just one single grape variety? Impossible! And then one that ripened very unreliably at the time? What a stupid thing to do!

But the quality that the Benedictines were able to extract from the vineyard quickly silenced the gossip. The Riesling from Schloss Johannisberg was soon on everyone's lips. What hardly anyone realised was that the harvest was a real nail-biter for the monks every year. They were not allowed to simply start harvesting when they thought the time was right, but had to seek permission from the prince abbot each time. And the prince abbot resided in the city of Fulda, 150 kilometres away.

Late harvest riders: a legend is born

Today, it takes only two to two and a half hours to cover this distance, depending on the traffic. In the 18th century, however, it took a few days. The procedure was the same every year: when the time of the harvest approached, the cellar master sent a mounted messenger with a few grapes to Fulda to the prince abbot. The prince abbot tasted the grapes as a formality and then sent the messenger back to Schloss Johannisberg with the harvest permit so that the Benedictines could begin the harvest.

Which brings us to the legendary year of 1775. At that time, the monks at Schloss Johannisberg were delighted with the excellent quality of the grapes. The wine-growing year had been ideal, the grapes were in perfect health and of very high quality. So when the grapes had almost reached the ideal level of ripeness, the cellar master sent a rider to Fulda to obtain the harvest permit. But the rider just didn't come back. But without permission, the monks did not dare to start the harvest. While all the other winegrowers were bringing their grapes into the cellar in the best autumn sunshine, the Benedictines had to watch as the perfect grapes ripened and then shrivelled on the vine and even rotted in places.

At last! The late-harvest rider arrives!

The exact time at which the rider with the harvesting permit finally arrived at Schloss Johannisberg is not entirely clear from the historical records. The various legends range from two to four weeks. It is also not clear why he was so late. In one story, he was attacked and barely survived. In another story, he had a lengthy tryst with a girl. And then in another legend he forgot the time because he got stuck in a pub. The only thing that is certain is that he eventually delivered the permission. By that time, the monks had already written off the harvest. You simply couldn't make good wine from such dried and mouldy grapes.

But in order to have any wine at all, they still picked the grapes and pressed them. When they tasted the finished young wine for the first time, they were amazed. This Riesling tasted much, much better than any other wine that had ever been made in this cellar! It was so concentrated and sweet! And then the aromas! There was honey in it, but also candied fruit. What a wonderful wine!

The secret behind the late harvest

What the monks did not know at the time, however, was that the Riesling grapes were not mouldy, but had been attacked by noble rot, or botrytis cinerea. If the weather is cold and rainy a few weeks before the harvest, this fungus actually ensures that the individual grapes become mouldy. However, if it is still warm and the autumn sun shines from midday onwards, driving away the morning mist from the Rhine, then no mould forms, but noble rot instead. The fungus then breaks through the skin of the berries to inject its enzymes.

And it is precisely these that give the wine its delicate notes, which are still a major characteristic of the late harvest sweet wines today. This is how the late harvest was discovered by chance, and it is still a quality level for German Prädikat wines in Germany today. The late messenger was given the name Spätlesereiter - and became a legend. It is thanks to him that the late harvest exists at all. To honour this fact, a statue of the Spätlesereiter still stands in the courtyard of Schloss Johannisberg today. Since 2021, a statue of the Spätlesereiter can also be found in the courtyard of the Stadtschloss in Fulda. And then there is the first volume of the comic series "Karl" by Michael Apitz and Eberhard and Patrick Kunkel. The trio delightfully retells the story here. The Spätlesereiter is still inspiring today. Meanwhile, the Riesling Spätlese from Schloss Johannisberg has achieved absolute cult status in the German wine world – and far beyond. And we think that's only right.