The Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken winery is located in the heart of Saarburg, the capital of Saar wine. Here, in the three-country corner between Luxembourg, France, and Germany, some of the world's best Rieslings are produced in the world-famous steep vineyard Saarburger Rausch! Dorothee Zilliken, in the eleventh generation, runs the traditional estate together with her parents Hans-Joachim "Hanno" and Ruth. In 2016, after several national and international internships, the trained viticulture engineer took over the estate and introduced several innovations. Classically, the winery was known primarily for its noble sweet Rieslings, which, along with Egon Müller's Scharzhofberger, have been among the best the Saar has to offer for decades. In 2017, Hanno Zilliken was awarded Winemaker of the Year by Gault-Millau, an award equivalent to an Oscar. The laudation stated: "His wines possess timeless greatness, far removed from any fashion trends [...] Everything is close to perfection, and so it was an easy decision to name Hans-Joachim Zilliken our Winemaker of the Year. Congratulations!" Furthermore, the winery is practically a contender for the "Kabinett of the Year" award from Gault-Millau every year, an award the winery has secured several times (most recently in 2018). It is therefore not surprising that, in addition to Gault-Millau, Eichelmann, Falstaff, and other leading wine guides also count the winery among the top 20 estates in Germany. Experts praise above all the aging potential of Zilliken wines, which has already earned them numerous first places in tastings 10 or 20 years later.



"Zilliken Riesling - the most delicate temptation since there has been Saar wine!"

Since Dorothee took on more and more responsibility in the family business from the mid-2000s, more emphasis has been placed on the production of dry wines. Since the 2009 vintage, the first-ever produced Rausch Große Gewächs has been at the top of the dry Zilliken Rieslings. Basically, Saarburger Rausch is the Zilliken's flagship vineyard, where they are the largest owners with approximately 11 hectares, and from which they coax incomparably delicate and playful Rieslings of world-class quality. The name Rausch was not given to this vineyard because of the intoxicating effect of its wines, but rather is based on the old German term "Steinrausch" – a term used to describe a scree slope whose topsoil was washed down the mountain by erosion after heavy rain. Here, you find predominantly fine-grained, heavily weathered Devonian slate soil, interspersed with quartzite and diabase, a greenish-shimmering volcanic rock. The vines can root particularly deeply here and can thus supply themselves well with water and minerals even during the longest dry periods in summer. This unique terroir, together with the prevailing microclimate of warming sunshine, cool winds from the Mannebacher valley, and morning mist from the Saar, creates Rieslings of unparalleled elegance. Besides Saarburger Rausch, the winery has always also owned a hectare of vines in Ockfener Bockstein, another world-famous vineyard with a warmer microclimate and coarser Devonian slate soil. The Bockstein Rieslings always show themselves more open and "fragrant" with riper fruit aromas compared to the delicate floral Rieslings from Saarburger Rausch. The wines...
are freshly bottled, accessible earlier, and therefore often provide more drinking pleasure in their young stage. Brand new in the portfolio is the Ayler Kupp, the third world-class vineyard owned by the Zillikens. A Kupp Grosses Gewächs was produced here for the first time in 2018, meaning the winery now has three Grosses Lagen. However, it was a long and often difficult journey to get here, in which "strong women" played a decisive role:



"A Prussian forester laid the foundation for today's success."

The origins of the winery can be traced back to 1742. Therefore, the winery has been family-owned for almost 280 years. The Zilliken ancestors were winemakers in Saarburg and Ockfen, who passed on the plots of land in Saarburger Rausch and Ockfener Bockstein to their descendants. The foundation for the winery's current success was laid by Dorothee's great-great-grandfather, Ferdinand Geltz (1851-1925), a royal Prussian forester, whose wines quickly became among the best in the region. In 1908, he was one of the founding members of the "Verein der Naturweinversteigerer Großer Ring," which later became the VDP Mosel-Saar-Ruwer. After his death, the vineyards were divided equally between his daughters Antoinette and Ella, who guided them through the difficult times of the First World War. The Second World War was, in a way, a turning point in the winery's history, as the former manor house on the Beuriger side was completely destroyed, including the cellar, in a devastating bombing raid on Christmas 1944. After the war, Marianne, the forester's granddaughter, married Fritz Zilliken, and since 1947 the winery has borne its current name, Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken. In 1950, they decided to acquire a two-story cellar in Heckingstraße on the other side of the Saar in Saarburg, which was subsequently expanded to become the current winery headquarters and a crucial element of the Zilliken style.
"The History of AP Numbers"
The Zillikens family has been 100% dedicated to Riesling since its inception, believing in strict yield limitation in the vineyard to unlock the vines' greatest potential. The winery still possesses several plots with ancient, over 130-year-old rootstock vines, which regularly produce some of the winery's best wines. Harvesting takes place in several stages, with different selections made if the vintage allows. It's not unusual for several different AP numbers of the same predicate level from the same vineyard to exist in some years, such as 2005. The lower the third-to-last number of the official test number (AP number) on the back of the label, the higher the wine ranks in the Zillikens' internal quality assessment. AP-1 is always the best wine of the vintage, but depending on the vintage, it can be either the best of several Trockenbeerenauslese (TBAs) produced or, in weaker years, "only" an auction-quality Spätlese. The Zillikens are extremely detail-oriented and have raised their standards for the individual predicates so high over the years that they only fill the appropriate predicates in vintages where they are 100% sensorially convinced of the quality. The selected grapes are brought whole to the press, directly pressed, and guided by natural gravity to fermentation in the cool cellar, where natural yeasts slowly ferment the must into wine.



"A stalactite cave as an ideal location for winemaking"

The two-story cellar of the Zillikens, built of slate rubble, is considered one of the deepest wine cellars in the Saar region. Anyone entering this wonderland for the first time immediately perceives with all their senses that this place is something very special. The air is clear and fresh like in an ice cave. A constant 11 degrees Celsius prevails here year-round, and the nearby springs ensure extremely high humidity, which on some days transforms parts of the cellar into a mystical...
A charming mist envelops the cellar. Dripping water from the ceiling throughout the cellar has, over the past decades, led to the formation of centimeter-long stalactites due to the highly mineralized water. Furthermore, the walls are covered with a centimeter-thick layer of black cellar fungus. But anyone who thinks the Zillikens should have their cellar thoroughly renovated is vastly mistaken! All the conditions described above interact in a unique way, creating a probably unique biotope that provides ideal conditions for the slow fermentation and perfect maturation and storage of Zilliken wines. These are invariably aged in old oak barrels, the classic "Fuder," which, due to the high humidity, do not need to be topped up as usual and are always full. These barrels are used for as long as possible, as the Zillikens appreciate the properties of the rougher, air-permeable oak barrels, as they help to better integrate the often crisp Saar acid into their wines.



"Classic Saar Rieslings in all variations provide a unique drinking pleasure."

Zilliken stands for classic Saar Rieslings, which are exceptionally elegant and playful. A typical Zilliken Riesling is delicate yet expressive, with fine minerality and a wonderfully invigorating interplay of sweetness and acidity. This light, floating, almost dancing mouthfeel evokes for many the image of a graceful prima ballerina. The sweet wines are otherworldly, on a par with Egon Müller. The dry wines have now established themselves among the German top wines after over 10 years, setting accents with their low alcohol content and full flavor! All Zilliken wines possess a unique drinkability. One often desperately searches for a hole in the bottom of the bottle because one simply cannot believe how quickly the bottle emptied. With this frightening rate of consumption, most bottles struggle to survive beyond the first year after bottling. However, those who have the discipline to let a few bottles mature in the cellar will be rewarded with an incomparably beautiful experience of an aged wine.



"Tradition and modernity in perfect symbiosis"

In short, the Zilliken winery masterfully combines perfection, tradition, and modernity. On the one hand, there's the focus on Riesling, cultivation on our steep slopes, traditional winemaking with natural yeasts in Mosel-Fuder barrels in the cool, "dripstone cave-like" cellar, and the traditional labels with the two family crests. On the other hand, there are meaningful, targeted innovations, such as the delicately tart estate wine "BUTTERFLY" with the butterfly label, introduced in the 2002 vintage, or the cooperation with Andreas Vallendar and Denis Reinhardt, which resulted in the renowned FERDINAND'S GIN, which has been causing a sensation nationally and internationally since 2013. The first gin from the Saar region is named after the winery founder, forester Ferdinand Geltz, and in addition to the use of regional botanicals, the unique selling point of this unique gin is the sip of Forstmeister Geltz-Zilliken wine with which each bottle of FERDINAND'S GIN is infused.