Overview
Schonfels (sometimes written Schönfels) is a small, extremely steep Riesling site on a rock spur above the left bank of the Saar between Ayl and Saarburg, roughly 2 hectares in size. It is not a freestanding Einzellage under German wine law: since the 1971 consolidation it has been one of several hillsides, along with Scheidterberg, Rauberg, and Sonnenberg, folded into the vastly expanded 49.2-hectare Ayler Kupp. The name survives on labels because the VDP classifies Schonfels as a VDP.GROSSE LAGE in its own right, and because Saar estates led by Peter Lauer in Ayl and Van Volxem in Wiltingen bottle it as a single site. The vineyard straddles the boundary between the two communes, which is why sources file it variously under Ayl or Saarburg; the Saarburg flank is known as Auf Schonfels.
Terroir & Position
The site sits tucked on a rock high above the shores of the Saar, facing southeast, with warm slate soil on a gradient steep enough that the parcels are worked as narrow terraced strips. The exposed cliff position and stone-radiated heat allow full ripeness in one of the coolest corners of the greater Mosel region. The vineyard is planted to Riesling, and the old stock is a large part of its reputation: the Lauer parcels in the Schonfels include ungrafted vines of 100 years and more, saved when Florian Lauer recultivated the overgrown site from 2006 after years of abandonment.
Producers
Peter Lauer bottles Schonfels under its cask-number system, as Fass 11 Schonfels, a VDP.GROSSE LAGE wine made as a Grosses Gewächs, and in some vintages as a Kabinett (No. 111). Van Volxem restored its parcel on the Saarburg side and bottles a Schonfels Riesling Grosses Gewächs; the VDP lists Schonfels among the estate's Grosse Lage holdings. Berry Bros. & Rudd describes the Van Volxem wine as coming from a southeast-facing slate slope of unusual steepness and old vine stock. SaarWeinGut Peter Burens in Saarburg also bottles the Saarburg flank under the Saarburger Auf Schonfels name.
What to Know
Schonfels is a recovered name rather than a continuous one: the site owes its current standing to the recultivation work of Florian Lauer and Van Volxem's Roman Niewodniczanski, and to the VDP classification that lets the name appear on labels despite its legal absorption into the Ayler Kupp. Wines labeled Ayler Kupp can legally come from Schonfels parcels, but the estates that farm the rock bottle it separately. The site should not be confused with vineyards at Konz-Falkenstein further down the Saar; Schonfels belongs to the Ayl-Saarburg stretch of the valley.