Overview
Im Falkenberg is an old cadastral designation (Gewann) within the Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr, the celebrated core of the Brauneberg hillside in the Mittelmosel. The VDP's vineyard register lists Juffer Sonnenuhr Im Falkenberg, Brauneberg as its own VDP.GROSSE LAGE entry, separate from the surrounding Juffer Sonnenuhr. The name has label history: the Brauneberg estate Kranz-Junk documents a Brauneberger Falkenberg label from the 1921 vintage, from the era before the 1971 wine law folded such names into the larger Einzellagen. The designation is best known today through the auction Grosses Gewächs of Weingut Fritz Haag, first selected from the parcel with the 2019 vintage.
Terroir & Position
The parent Juffer-Sonnenuhr occupies the steepest, most south-facing center of the Brauneberg, the slope on the left bank of the Mosel opposite the village of Brauneberg, curved like a concave mirror around the vineyard sundial; the site covers about eleven hectares on blue Devonian slate. The Falkenberg section is a small part of this slope with gradients up to 80 percent and full southern exposure, described by its growers as among the warmest sections of the vineyard. Fritz Haag characterizes its holding there as some of the estate's oldest vines, consistently yielding the smallest and ripest berries.
Producers
Weingut Fritz Haag, the Brauneberg estate whose family has farmed the village since 1605 and whose most prized parcels lie in the Juffer-Sonnenuhr, bottles Juffer Sonnenuhr Im Falkenberg as a dry Grosses Gewächs sold as a Versteigerungswein (auction wine); Oliver Haag made the first such selection in 2019. Weingut Kranz-Junk of Brauneberg also bottles a Brauneberger Juffer-Sonnenuhr Im Falkenberg Riesling in dry Grosses Gewächs style from its own parcel.
What to Know
A bottle carrying Im Falkenberg is a single-parcel selection from inside the Juffer-Sonnenuhr, not a separate vineyard along the river; the addition signals the warmest, steepest old-vine ground of an already small Grosse Lage. The name should not be confused with the Piesporter Falkenberg, an unrelated Einzellage at Piesport upstream. The Fritz Haag bottling is sold through auction rather than the estate's regular range, so quantities are small and allocation runs through the auction trade.