Hochheim – Wine festival, riesling and Frankfurt's own vineyard

The visit to Hochheim was partly made on a press trip with Visit Frankfurt, but, as always, everything written here reflects only my personal thoughts and opinions.

We'd expected it to take ten minutes to drive into Hochheim and find a parking spot. It took 45. This weekend, the small wine town had been transformed into a maze of one-way streets, roadblocks, and pedestrians strolling carefree down the middle of the road. It was the Hochheimer Wine Festival - the town's annual wine celebration — and it seemed half of Hessen had chosen this exact afternoon to visit.

After a few more laps, we give up. We leave the car at the train station and continue to the festival on foot, up through the beautiful vineyards toward the center of town and the church. The thermometer reads 30 degrees, and by the time we reach the first wine stand, we're already sweltering. But a wine festival is a wine festival — it's worth the visit, regardless of the weather.

The gateway to the Rheingau

Hochheim - or Hochheim am Main, to give the town its full name - sits in the easternmost part of the Rheingau wine region, where the Main flows into the Rhine. It's one of Germany's smaller wine regions, but also one of its most respected. Along the roughly fifty-kilometre stretch where the Rhine makes one of its curious bends and flows from east to west, vines have become a defining feature of the landscape. South-facing slopes with abundant sun, hills sheltering the vineyards from cold winds, and the river's warming effect all combine to create excellent conditions for fine wine.

When you think of wine on the Rhine, you might think of Rüdesheim and Eltville, but Hochheim has its own long and significant wine history. Wine has been grown here for around 800 years and today the vineyards cover around 210 hectares, spread over around 40 vineyards.

Riesling dominates the vineyards of Hochheim, though Spätburgunder (better known as Pinot Noir) and smaller amounts of Müller-Thurgau are grown here too. Wines from Hochheim are typically described with words like "crisp acidity, minerality, and elegance." At the festival, though, in the scorching heat, there was one quality the visitors appreciated just as much — how cold the drink was.

For the English, Hochheim is perhaps most associated with a royal visit. In the 1850s, Queen Victoria came here with Prince Albert. They tasted the region’s wines and liked them so much that they later had them served at the British court. The name “Hock” subsequently came to be used as an English collective name for German white wines – taken from Hochheim’s name.

Hochheimer Wine Festival

Hochheimer Wine Festival is not a polished wine fair with professional sommeliers and spit cups. It's more of a town-wide party, where winegrowers set up shop in the streets for a few days alongside restaurants, food trucks, and local artisans. For 3 euros you get a festival glass, which lets you stroll between the producers and sample their wines. The money goes toward the festival's music and cultural program — and yes, you get to keep the glass. And the festival isn't just for wine lovers, either: those who'd rather have a beer, or skip alcohol altogether, aren't forgotten.

In the historic town center, we weave between half-timbered houses and tall wine tables. The wine houses pour Riesling, glasses are raised, and conversations carry on loudly from the wooden benches under the trees. The heat is palpable, but it hardly seems to matter. The pace is slow, and no one seems to be in much of a hurry. The festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, but it's clear this is more than just an annual event — it has become part of Hochheim's identity, an unmissable fixture on the calendar in early July for young and old alike.

But our real reason for coming to Hochheim awaits us, away from the hustle and bustle of the festival. We've arranged to meet Fabian Schmidt, the winemaker who has leased Frankfurt City Vineyard (Weingut der Stadt Frankfurt) since last winter.

Weingut der Stadt Frankfurt

It's not exactly common for a city to own a vineyard. Frankfurt's wine history traces back to Carmelite monks, who grew grapes in Hochheim several hundred years ago. When church property was secularized in 1803, the vineyard passed into the ownership of the city of Frankfurt, which ran the business itself until the 1990s. After that, it began leasing the vineyard out on thirty-year contracts.

Today, the property covers around 23 hectares, mainly in Hochheim. In January 2026, Fabian Schmidt and his family took over the lease. Since then, it has been full steam ahead to renovate, rebuild and, above all, give the old vineyard a fresh start.

Fabian welcomes us at Weingut der Stadt Frankfurt, out on the terrace among the vines. The table quickly fills up with freshly baked flammkuchen and the estate's own wines. Along with the vineyard, the family also took over a restaurant, open daily, serving Hessian classics like Handkäse and Grüne Soße. Here you dine with a view over the vineyards — a combination that's hard to beat on a beautiful day like this.

Fabian grew up in the area and trained in viticulture and oenology. During his studies, he did an internship with an organic wine producer and later worked at the famous Weingut Leitz in Rüdesheim. Now a graduate, he took the big step of becoming a co-owner of Weinegg in Hochheim, a vineyard of around 14 hectares that has flourished under his leadership and converted to biodynamic cultivation according to Demeter principles. In other words, he is an experienced winemaker with an entrepreneurial spirit who has now taken over Frankfurt's city vineyard.

Riesling is still the main grape at Frankfurt's city vineyard, so the first wine Fabian pours for us is, naturally, a Riesling from Hochheim. It's here, in the eastern outpost of the Rheingau, that most of the city's vineyard holdings are located. The grapes are harvested by hand, and the ambition is high. It shows. The wine has both energy and precision, without ever tipping into pretentious. It's exactly the kind of Riesling you want to drink at the height of summer — fresh and taut, with lively acidity and a fine balance between fruit and minerality. It's a wine that feels just as natural alongside a crispy flammkuchen as it does with a plate of scampi. We barely have time to study the glass before it's empty, which perhaps says more than any tasting note ever could.

Our second wine is a crisp dry Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc), partly aged in oak barrels. There is a little more body and a softer feel here, but still with a freshness that invigorates. A wine that would be a great accompaniment to a summer dinner of grilled chicken with a fresh potato salad.

Fabian has a plan to make the vineyard better equipped for the future. Starting in 2027, the operation will gradually transition to biodynamic farming. This isn't something that happens overnight — it can take up to five years for the vines and soil to adjust, and for the cultivation to find its new balance.

But Fabian also has plans to renew older vineyards and replant where necessary. New grape varieties are being considered, including more resistant varieties such as PIWI grapes. This year it is dry and hot, but the vines' roots are deep and so far the grapes are doing well. It was different in 2021, when Hochheim lost around 40 percent of the harvest due to the rainy weather. It is important to build a vineyard that is equipped for the future.

One of the most unique parts of Frankfurt's city vineyard isn't here in Hochheim at all, but on the Lohrberg, a hill inside Frankfurt itself. It's a truly singular location — the only vineyard within the city limits. Here, wine is grown on the hillside, with Frankfurt's skyline in view. The plot is small compared to the rest of the estate, but its symbolic value is all the greater. The growing conditions here are also exciting to work with: on the Lohrberg it's more humid and cooler, the vines grow denser, and the wind is weaker than in Hochheim — conditions that produce a completely different wine.

"When lunch is over, we walk down to the heart of the vineyard — the wine cellar. It's almost empty here. The previous tenant took his wine barrels with him when the lease expired, so when Fabian and his team started in January, they essentially had to begin from scratch. The wooden barrels and steel tanks are still there, but the cellar still lacks the yearly rhythm that usually comes with ongoing wine production.

Fabian sees it more as an opportunity than a problem. New staff have been hired, and planning for this year's harvest is already underway. The cellar will be filled again. There's something appealing in that image — an old, historic vineyard that will not only be maintained, but developed, and slowly given a new direction.

Memories in the trunk of the car

When we leave Fabian and Hochheim, the festival still has hours left to run, and the sun is high. We walk back to the car through the vineyards, with time to reflect on the afternoon — on meeting Fabian, on his enthusiasm and knowledge, and on his infectious belief that it's possible to build on an old vineyard without losing its soul. And on the wines, of course. The glasses we were lucky enough to taste were a reminder that there's already a lot to be gained here, even though this new chapter has only just begun.

Down in the cellars of Frankfurt's City Vineyard, the empty barrels await this year's harvest. I'm already looking forward to coming back in a year or two to see what Fabian and his family have accomplished — how the cellar has filled up, how the new ideas have taken shape, and how the wines have developed.

Until then, I'll just have to enjoy Frankfurt's wines carefully at home. The advantage of driving through Europe is that there's almost always room for a bottle or two of beautiful memories in the trunk.

How do I get to Hochheim?

Hochheim Am Main is located 3 km west of Frankfurt, near Mainz. The easiest way to visit the town without a car is to take the train to Hochheim from Frankfurt, it takes 20 minutes. From the train station, just follow the signs towards the city center and the vineyards.

Hochheimer Wine Festival takes place every year around July 9-12, but as it is a weekend festival, the dates are flexible. It is easy to stay in, for example, Mainz or Frankfurt and take the train to the festival.

Don't miss a visit to Weingut der Stadt Frankfurt! The winery is located in the city center, 900 meters from the train station, overlooking the sloping vineyards. Visit their gutsausschank (vineyard tavern) to buy their wines or have dinner with a glass of wine at sunset over the vineyards.

Read more about Frankfurt here: 15 attractions in Frankfurt – your ultimate guide to the perfect weekend getaway

Do you want to read more about Germany? Here you will find more articles about nature, cities, vineyards and hiking.