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# Pfeffingen, VDP.Weingut
- URL: https://www.jessebeckerms.com/pfeffingen-vdp-weingut/
- Published: 2026-09-28T19:33:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-07T21:49:17.000Z
- Description: Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße (Pfalz) | Bad Dürkheim | 17 hectares | Certified sustainable by Fair'n Green
- Author: Jesse Becker MS

**Disclosure:** I have a commercial relationship with this producer. See my [ethics and disclosure policy](https://www.jessebeckerms.com/ethics/).

Three generations live and work on the estate in Pfeffingen, a small hamlet between Bad Dürkheim and Ungstein, directly on the Deutsche Weinstraße. Jan Eymael looks after the property, with help from other family members in the vineyards and cellar. The unicorn displayed on their labels is the family crest, dating to 1622 and conferred by Emperor Ferdinand II. The vineyards surround the winery, mainly at Ungstein near Bad Dürkheim, where you can visit the remains of a Roman villa and press house. Most sites are gently sloping with limestone, loess, and loam soils.

The most important vineyards are the Ungsteiner Herrenberg and Ungsteiner Weilberg. Ungsteiner Herrenberg is a VDP.Grosse Lage with highly calcareous loess-loam, south- to southeast-facing, and moderately steep with a 10 to 25% gradient. "Kanzel" is the top section. Ungsteiner Weilberg is the other VDP.Grosse Lage; a south/southeast-facing site with a highly unique red earth known as Terra Rossa. Pfeffingen grows several varieties; while known for its very good Rieslings, it is also known for its Scheurebe and Gewürztraminer, and it has plantings of Merlot, Chardonnay, and a rare, ancient red-skinned mutation of the classic white Riesling grape known as Roter Riesling. 

Scheurebe is of particular interest at this estate, where it has been grown for more than 50 years. Scheurebe was the invention of Dr. Georg Scheu, whose goal in breeding it was to create a superior Silvaner, one that was both resilient to disease and highly aromatic. Scheu headed the Landesanstalt für Rebenzüchtung (Institute for Vine Breeding) in Alzey, Rheinhessen, when he successfully crossed Riesling with Bukettraube to create what he named Sämling 88 in 1916\. Scheu numbered all his young plants, and this crossing was "Sämling 88" (Seedling 88), still the preferred synonym in Austria. The variety was later named after Scheu.

Bukettraube (sometimes called Buketrebe or Silvaner Musqué) is itself a crossing of Silvaner and Trollinger (Schiava), which, as of this writing, the author has yet to taste on its own. Crossed again with Riesling, Scheu hit upon a highly unique aromatic profile that resembles the grapefruit aroma of Sauvignon Blanc, but with a distinctive black currant note, and, when vinified dry, a certain phenolic bitterness that many find appealing. Despite its Rheinhessen origin, the variety seems at home in the Pfalz, where several quality estates issue respectable bottlings. 

At Pfeffingen, Jan Eymael's grandparents, Karl and Helene Fuhrmann, intentionally planted it in their best vineyard site, the Ungsteiner Herrenberg, and introduced a dry Scheurebe as early as 1978\. Today's domestic German market weirdly fetishizes Sauvignon Blanc, and some producers, like Pfalz's Von Winning and Nahe's Genheimer Kiltz, do it better than most, but I like to think of Scheurebe as Germany's answer to the universally grown Sauvignon Blanc, and Pfeffingen's as the benchmark example. 

While there's no single-vineyard-designated Scheurebe, Pfeffingen's Scheurebe Ungstein VDP.Ortswein (village-level) comes from the grand cru Herrenberg, and the skin-macerated and barrique-aged Scheurebe "O" would have any sommelier guessing classified-growth Pessac-Léognan blanc. Besides the dry Scheurebe, Pfeffingen's Terra Rossa Riesling (VDP.Ortswein) captures the fragrant identity of Weilberg's iron-rich, clayey loam, and the two Riesling GGs (Herrenberg and Weilberg) couldn't be stylistically further apart: Herrenberg shows the structure and tension of calcareous soil, while Weilberg's terra rossa gives an exotic spice.