The Appel winery is located in Niederleuken, a district of Saarburg, directly at the foot of the steep Saarburger Fuchs vineyard. Here, the Appel family has been cultivating wine since the 17th century – initially, as was customary at the time, as a mixed operation of viticulture and agriculture, and since 1973 as a full-time business with a vineyard area of 2 hectares. From today's perspective, this may seem small, but for the conditions at the time, this operational size was not insignificant, and so the winery flourished under the leadership of Julius Appel in the following decades. Investments were successively made in new viticulture and cellar technology, and the vineyard areas were further expanded. Since the current owner, Armin Appel, joined in 1996, the cultivated vineyard area has grown from 2.5 ha to 9 ha. Thus, in addition to the existing vineyards in the prime location Saarburger Rausch and the extremely steep Saarburger Fuchs, Armin Appel was also able to acquire parcels in the two world-famous sites Ockfener Bockstein and Ayler Kupp. Today, he cultivates over 90% Riesling, as well as Rivaner and Pinot Noir. While the Saar-typical blue Devonian slate soil dominates in all the aforementioned locations, there is a special feature in the Saarburger Rausch site. Here, a hard, greenish volcanic rock called Diabase (Greenstone) is increasingly found, which often gives the wines grown there a characteristic herbal note.

In the mid-1990s, Armin Appel, in his mid-20s, joined his parents' winery and gradually took on more responsibility. He began by modernizing the vineyard and cellar, initiating the necessary technological changes. By building a new machinery hall and a stainless steel cellar, as well as acquiring a new fleet of modern machinery, he set the course for a successful future. Today, the winery relies on a combination of traditional craftsmanship with selective hand-picking in the vineyard and measured machine use for plant protection and cultivation measures. In the cellar, the grapes arriving in autumn are immediately whole-bunch pressed, allowed to clarify overnight, and then fermented under temperature control in stainless steel tanks.

This approach creates white and red wines with pronounced ripe fruit aromas. The delicate aromas of the bouquet continue on the full-bodied palate, presenting wines that are uncomplicated and immensely enjoyable to drink, with a moderate alcohol content! This makes them excellent everyday wines, offering great drinking pleasure immediately after bottling. However, there is also considerable aging potential, as impressively demonstrated by a perfectly fresh 2007 Saarburger Rausch Spätlese feinherb, which surfaced during this year's inventory. His noble sweet specialties from the magnificent 2010 Saar vintage, from Saarburger Schlossberg (Auslese) and Saarburger Fuchs (Beerenauslese), are just beginning to reach their drinking maturity and are unrivaled in their category in terms of price-performance ratio! If you want to surprise your guests on their next visit, serve one of these noble sweet delicacies with a hearty cheese platter instead of a red wine, and you will see astonished connoisseur eyes.