Willems-Willems, Weingut

Disclosure: I have a commercial relationship with this producer. See my ethics and disclosure policy.

Five generations of Willems women have managed the family business in Oberemmel, situated in the Konzer Tälchen, a side valley of the Saar. Until 1971, it operated as a mixed farm before Maria Willems married Karl Willems. The couple shared the same last name through a common ancestor, resulting in the double surname Willems-Willems.

Maria's daughter Carolin and her husband Jürgen Hofmann, a winery owner in Appenhem, Rheinhessen, manage the estate today with the help of Miguel Louro, a winemaker from Portugal who previously worked at S.A. Prüm. Before Louro, Peter Thelen produced the Willems-Willems wines for many years before founding his own winery, Petershof, also in Oberemmel, in 2019.

Besides the estate-level Rieslings and Weißburgunder, there are two village-level Riesling bottlings, Oberemmeler Riesling "Schiefer" and Riesling "Auf der Lauer" (originally Auf der Mauer), from a walled old vine planting in Oberemmel, plus an Oberemmeler Spätburgunder.

From there, several Lagenweine (single-vineyard) Riesling bottlings show why these Konzer Tälchen sites were prized in the past and are returning to the fore today. Doing this requires an examination of some very old tax maps, and some very excellent explanation by Lars Carlberg, the ex-importer turned winery worker at one of the finest estates of Konzer Tälchen and the Saar, Hofgut Falkenstein.

Lars has written extensively in English on the Konzer Tälchen, offering immense detail on its history and terroirs. His work appears in the 2022 English translation of Karl Heinrich Koch's 1897 historical work, Mosel Wine, and on his website (now Substack); his research is so comprehensive that there's little point in repeating it here; go to Lars if you're seeking more detail. That said, below are a few words about the Konzer Tälchen and the vineyard sites specific to Willems-Willems.

Konzer Tälchen translates as "Little Valley of Konz." However, Franz Josef Clotten's 1868 Prussian viticultural tax map of the Saar and Mosel reveals it covers several villages and a good amount of territory. Starting at Konz (Conz on the map) with a series of excellent south-facing slopes, the Tälchen skirts past the Wiltingen Kupp and runs parallel to Scharzhofberg, forming a U-shape on its way to Oberemmel, Krettnach, Obermennig, and Niedermennig.

While the vineyards here carry less renown than Bockstein, Kupp, or Scharzhofberg, the Clotten map above, with the finest plots designated in deep red, proves that sites like Euchariusberg, Altenberg, and Agritiusberg were historically significant, and with modern estates, namely, Hofgut Falkenstein, Stefan Müller, Willems-Willems, and until recently, von Hövel*, drawing attention back to the little valley of Konz.

Oberemmeler Altenberg

Locate Junkerberg in Oberemmel on the map above, and you will have found Altenberg. Junkerberg is now a Gewann within the Einzellage Altenberg. Colored light red on the map, it is a prime south-facing site extending into the side valley behind the Oberemmeler Hütte, a former Von Hövel monopole. Altenberg features weathered red and blue Devonian slate soils, and Willems-Willems makes feinherb and Kabinett from this site.

Niedemenniger Herrenberg

Readers may find it useful to use the Deutsches Weininstituts online Regionenkarte tool to locate these sites with their modern site names. This particular Herrenberg is the Zuckerberg seen on the Clotten map above, more specifically the western section of the Zuckerberg with iron-rich, gray-clayey slate soil. Willems-Willems Herrenberg Kabinett is from the mid-slope, "above a vineyard wall."

Oberemmeler Karlsberg

Karlsberg, in the 'sweet-spot' near Raul, Altenberg, and Hütte, must be 1. very small and 2. surrounded on three sides by the Oberemmel village, based on the look of things on the Deutsches Weininstituts online Regionenkarte tool. Mainly west-facing with reddish-grey, warm slate soils, Willems-Willems produces Spätlese from this site.

Krettnacher Euchariusberg

The central part of Euchariusberg is dark red on Clotten's map. Lars tells us that the Einzellage Krettnacher Euchariusberg expanded greatly to its current 36-ha size, and that an adjoining 4-hectare Einzellage Niedermenniger Euchariusberg also exists. Willems-Willems has parcels in the original Krettnacher Euchariusberg. With gray, clayey slate, Euchariusberg is one of the top sites of the Konzer Tälchen.

*Von Hövel, a VDP estate based in Oberemmel, ceased operations at the beginning of 2026.