Volz

Overview

Volz is a parcel of the Wiltinger Braunfels on the Saar, bordering the Scharzhofberg, and is known almost entirely through the bottling of Weingut Van Volxem in Wiltingen. It was an independent vineyard until the 1971 German wine law consolidated it into the Braunfels Einzellage, but its standing is much older: in the Prussian vineyard classification of 1868 the site was placed in the top class, and it appears under the name Volz on Clotten's 1868 map of the Saar and Mosel. The VDP now recognizes Volz as a VDP.GROSSE LAGE in its own right, listed among Van Volxem's Wiltingen sites alongside Braunfels, Gottesfuss, and Scharzhofberger.

Terroir & Position

The parcel is a slate slope within the greater Braunfels, at the boundary where that vineyard meets the Scharzhofberg. Van Volxem describes the Volz vines as around 60 years old. Detailed published data on the parcel's exact surface and boundaries is scarce; the practical definition is the block Van Volxem farms and bottles under the name, which Grape Guru characterizes as the estate's near-monopole grand cru.

Producers

Van Volxem singled the parcel out after Roman Niewodniczanski took over the then run-down estate at the end of 1999 and began separating old-vine blocks from its Braunfels holdings. The wine is bottled as Volz Riesling Grosses Gewächs; retailers list it in full as Volz Wiltingen Braunfels Riesling GG, which states the legal position plainly: a named parcel inside the Braunfels Einzellage. No other estate is documented bottling the name.

What to Know

Volz is the clearest Saar example of a pre-1971 site name revived from the historical record. The label reads simply VOLZ; the appellation behind it is Wiltinger Braunfels, and the claim to distinction rests on the 1868 classification, the position at the Scharzhofberg boundary, and the age of the vines. Buyers comparing Van Volxem's range should read Volz as the estate's selection from the oldest, best-placed Braunfels parcels rather than as a separate hill.