Wines made from Optima grapes of Rheinhessen

Discover the best wines made with Optima as a single variety or as a blend of Rheinhessen.

More informations about the variety Optima

Intraspecific crossing between sylvaner x riesling (perhaps rieslaner) and müller-thurgau obtained in 1930 by Peter Morio (1887-1960) and Bernhard Husfeld (1900-1970) at the Siebeldingen Research Institute (Palatinate) in Germany. It can be found in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, England, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, ... very little known in France. Note that Optima is the mother of the Orion grape variety.

More informations about the region of Rheinhessen

Rheinhessen is Germany's largest region for producing the quality wines of the Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA) and Prädikatswein designations, with roughly 26,500 hectares (65,000 acres) of Vineyard">Vineyards as of 2014. Many of its most significant viticultural areas are favorably influenced by the Rhine river, which runs aLong its North and eastern borders. The Rhine, along with the Nahe river to the west and the Haardt mountains to its South, form a natural border. Rheinhessen covers an area south of Rheingau, north of Pfalz and east of Nahe, and is located within the Rhineland-Palatinate federal state.

What are the typical flavors of the Optima grape variety?

News about the grape variety Optima

Ukrainian wine, hanging in the balance

Since February 24th 2022 the world has quickly learned a great deal more about Europe’s second-largest country, Ukraine. Most notably will be our profound admiration for the Ukrainians’ continued resistance to the invading Russian Army. This is but one item on a long list that includes such things as Ukraine being one of the world’s top exporters of wheat, barley and sunflower seeds. However, many people are also now learning that Ukraine not only has a thriving winemaking sect ...

Andrew Jefford: ‘Rosé, for the time being, is a pretty babble’

Many wine styles can seem perplexing at first: imagine the first bottle of Barolo if you only know Barossa Shiraz, or the first bottle of Jura Savagnin if you were brought up on California Chardonnay. With time, thought and repeated tasting, though, comes understanding. You learn each wine’s syntax and lexicon, its hints and inferences. You grasp the ways in which each style communicates. Its beauty dawns, then grows. Rosé wine sales grew 23% worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Its fuel has come fr ...

Champagne harvest 2022: top quality forecast as picking begins

The Champagne 2022 harvest has begun and picking start dates have been set for the majority of villages, the Comité Champagne has announced. Individual harvest start dates are set for each village and grape variety in the entire Champagne region. This year, dates range between 20 August (Montgueux in the Côte des Blancs) and 6 September (Dormans Soilly in the Vallée de la Marne). The Réseau Matu, a network of hundreds of vineyard control plots, is used to observe the ripening of grapes across th ...