Great grape varieties tend to come with great founding myths. Riesling is the exception. Its first known written trace is a line of bookkeeping. In the account for the year 1435, an official of the count in Rüsselsheim am Main noted down what he had spent on his lord’s vineyards. Among the entries was an item of 22 shillings. The source offers nothing grander than that – which is precisely what makes it so credible.
The line in the cellar account
In the 15th century Rüsselsheim lay within the territory of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen, a family with extensive holdings along the Middle Rhine and the Main and a profitable trade in wine. The ruling count at the time was Johann IV, who died in 1444. His administration kept careful accounts of income and expenditure, among them the cellar account of Rüsselsheim castle.
It is in this account that we find the entry now regarded as the earliest record of Riesling – a view the town of Rüsselsheim shares in its official chronicle. In the usual reading it runs: „Item 22 ß umb seczreben rießlingen in die wingarten“ (our translation: “Item, 22 shillings for Riesling vine cuttings for the vineyards”). The Setzreben it mentions are planting stock – young vines for setting out. Local accounts and the cultural landscape portal KuLaDig name the count’s steward, Klaus Kleinfisch, as the buyer.
What the sentence proves can be listed quickly. In 1435 there was a variety name that corresponds to, or comes very close to, today’s Riesling. Planting material of this variety could be bought specifically. And it was thought worthwhile to plant it in the count’s vineyards. What the sentence does not prove is how the wine tasted, where the vines came from, or whether the variety was already spelt the way we spell it.
One date, two readings
It is in the small print that things become interesting. The Winzerfreunde Rüsselsheim, a local society of wine enthusiasts, and the town’s tourism website give the date as 13 March 1435, as does the cultural landscape portal KuLaDig. Elsewhere the Winzerfreunde are more precise: the date marks the start of the accounting year in whose account the item appears. The onomastics scholar Jürgen Udolph, who has studied the origin of the word Riesling in detail, instead quotes, following the specialist literature, a fair copy of the cellar account held in the state archive in Marburg and dated „zum 13. Feb. 1435“ (our translation: “for 13 Feb. 1435”). The town of Rüsselsheim’s own chronicle gives only the year. Two things are therefore clear: the date refers to the account, not to the day the vines were bought, and whether it is 13 February or 13 March cannot be decided from the sources available. For wine history the difference hardly matters; for anyone planning an anniversary, perhaps it does.
The more intriguing question concerns the word itself. The account was made accessible through the calendar of documents (Regesten) of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen published by the archivist Karl E. Demandt in 1956. Udolph had a colleague in Göttingen examine the spelling and concludes that it probably reads not “ie” but “u”. He is not alone in this: Rudolf Steffens’s dictionary of historical wine terminology considers “rueßlingen” the correct reading, and another specialist has suggested “rüßlingen”. The German Wikipedia now gives the entry in this spelling. That does not settle the matter for good, since the Winzerfreunde and most local accounts stick with “rießlingen”. Both readings are in circulation; the one with “u” currently has the stronger scholarly arguments behind it. Udolph derives the name from Ruß, soot – a reference to the small dark specks that ripening Riesling berries can show. It is one interpretation among several. The etymology of Riesling is still not considered settled, and anyone wishing to liven up a tasting with an argument will find rewarding material here.
The next traces
Rüsselsheim did not remain alone for long. Udolph lists a series of further records from the 15th and 16th centuries, each with its source. For 1453 he cites the form “rueßlinge” from around Rüdesheim-Aulhausen, for 1464 “ruesseling” from Trier. For Worms, drawing among other things on Steffens’s dictionary, he gives the forms “ruszlinge” for 1490 and “ruszling” for 1494. A record of “rissling” from 1511 comes from Pfeddersheim near Worms.
What stands out is that almost all the early forms have a u or ü. The i only prevails later. An important step is marked by the botanist Hieronymus Bock, who lists the variety as Riesling in the 1552 edition of his herbal. Both Udolph and Wikipedia cite this record. With it, Riesling was no longer merely an item in account books but also a subject of learned botanical description.
One qualification matters: the Rüsselsheim line is the oldest known record. That does not mean the variety originated there. Anyone buying vine cuttings in 1435 was buying them from someone who already had them. The vine must therefore be older than its first mention. Where exactly it comes from, the account does not say.
How the account was rediscovered
That Rüsselsheim today promotes itself with the phrase “Riesling since 1435” goes back to a rediscovery in the late 1970s. The Rheingau wine expert Josef Staab played a central role, although accounts differ in the details. According to the local newspaper gg-online, Staab came across the document himself in 1980. The chronicle on graf-von-katzenelnbogen.de, by contrast, says that Demandt’s find was first publicised in a wine trade journal and that Staab drew the Lord Mayor’s attention to it as early as 1977. Either way, the town was quick to respond. Lord Mayor Karlheinz Storsberg had a small vineyard planted on municipal land on Frankfurter Straße. The planting date is given as 16 April 1980, and 100 vines were set out to begin with. The first harvest in 1982 yielded 165 bottles – half-bottles, according to gg-online.
The vineyard as a monument
Rüsselsheim has no classic Riesling monument in bronze or stone. The town regards the vineyard itself as a living monument to the first mention and to the viticulture once practised there. According to the town and the Winzerfreunde, it measures around 800 square metres. Today it counts 275 vines in eleven rows, producing about 300 litres a year.
Since 1985 the vineyard has been looked after by the Winzerfreunde Rüsselsheim. The society was founded in the year of the 550th anniversary, which was celebrated with a tasting in the museum cellar of Rüsselsheim fortress. Since 2004, according to the society, the Künstler estate in Hochheim has been its partner, providing the members with professional support. Each vintage receives its own label, designed by a different artist from the region. The bottles are said to be much sought after – hardly a bold claim with only around 300 litres to go round.
What remains
Rüsselsheim is better known today as a car town than as a wine village, and a few hundred square metres of vines will not change that. But they are a reminder of something easily overlooked: wine history is often found not in chronicles but in accounts. In 1435 an official simply wanted to record what he had spent 22 shillings on. Without knowing it, he issued Germany’s most famous grape variety with its birth certificate. Or at least with its oldest receipt.
