Overview
Baden has two registered Einzellagen named Eichberg, and a label reading simply "Eichberg" from Baden refers to one of them. The famous one is the Oberrotweiler Eichberg in the Kaiserstuhl, a VDP.Grosse Lage and one of the warmest vineyard sites in Germany. The second, much larger Eichberg lies in the Bereich Breisgau and is shared by the communes of Denzlingen, Glottertal and Heuweiler. The name is generally traced to oaks once planted in these vineyards. The Alsace Grand Cru Eichberg at Eguisheim is a separate French site with no connection to either Baden vineyard.
Terroir & Position
Oberrotweiler Eichberg (Kaiserstuhl): the site sits on a small ridge of volcanic origin at the western edge of the Kaiserstuhl between Oberrotweil and Bischoffingen, in the commune of Vogtsburg im Kaiserstuhl. It faces south and southeast, rising from 230 to 310 meters at gradients of 10 to 50 percent. The source rock is volcanic ash and tuff, weathered into a heavy, dark soil that stores the day's heat and radiates it into the vines at night; Weingut Landerer describes black volcanic tephrite shot through with veins of lime. The VDP.Grosse Lage core covers roughly 8 hectares.
Eichberg (Breisgau): an east-west ridge whose south flank carries vines across Denzlingen, Glottertal and Heuweiler, with about 43 hectares under vine. Soils are weathered gneiss, exposures run southwest to south-southeast, elevations reach about 550 meters, and gradients run 20 to 75 percent; the Glottertal sections rank among the steepest vineyards in Germany. The historic Roter Bur steep slope on the eastern side of the Glottertal belongs geologically to this Eichberg. Plantings include Spätburgunder, Grauburgunder, Weissburgunder, Riesling and Müller-Thurgau.
Producers
Oberrotweil: Weingut Salwey, the roughly 50 hectare VDP estate in Oberrotweil, bottles Grauburgunder and Spätburgunder Grosse Gewächse from the Eichberg and calls it the warmest site in its portfolio. Weingut Franz Keller in Vogtsburg-Oberbergen bottles an Eichberg Spätburgunder GG. Weingut Landerer in Oberrotweil farms Spätburgunder and Merlot on the site, and Weingut Peter Wagner of Oberrotweil also holds parcels.
Breisgau: the Roter Bur Glottertäler Winzer cooperative, founded in 1951 with over 140 growers on about 60 hectares, bottles Steillage wines labeled Einzellage Eichberg, including Spätburgunder and the Weissherbst the valley is known for. Weingut Frey in Denzlingen, farming about 17 hectares, counts the Eichberg as its largest and most important vineyard.
What to Know
For trade purposes the two are easy to separate: a VDP Grosses Gewächs labeled Eichberg is the Oberrotweil volcanic site, while Breisgau Eichberg bottlings carry the cooperative's or estate's Breisgau address and gneiss-driven, often steep-slope character. The wein.plus vineyard lexicon counts exactly two Baden Einzellagen of the name; no Durbacher Eichberg appears in the register, and Durbach's classified sites carry other names. Buyers matching labels to sites should also rule out the Alsatian Grand Cru Eichberg, which appears on Eguisheim wines from producers across the Rhine.