Why it matters
The producer
Reh Kendermann describes itself as Germany’s largest export winery. Bingen is the company’s working centre for winemaking, bottling, storage, sales and administration, so its bottles are shaped by a cellar and distribution operation rather than by one village estate. Black Tower carries that scale into a widely available branded range; Kalkstein Riesling and Pinot Noir Terra Quartär bring grape and regional origin closer to the front label.
The business began in 1920, when Carl Reh senior established a grape, must and wine trading company in Leiwen in the Mosel valley. In 1936 he acquired quality-capable Mosel vineyards and adopted neutral glass-lined storage tanks, joining vineyard supply to controlled storage. Carl Reh and Hermann Kendermann merged their businesses in 1997 to form the Bingen-based company; Andrea and Carl Reh took full ownership in 1999. The present range still reflects that history: sourcing, cellar work, bottling and branded wines belong to the same operation.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Bingen is the operational base, but Reh Kendermann’s structure extends to Böchingen, Leiwen and Gau-Bickelheim. That multi-site footprint matters because the company can build different wine styles from several German sources rather than asking one vineyard area to do every job. On the bottle, Pfalz appears directly on Kalkstein Riesling, making the region part of the wine’s description rather than a background detail.
Pfalz Kalkstein Riesling names both a region and a grape: dry Riesling from the Pfalz. Pinot Noir Terra Quartär adds a stated soil context to its Pinot Noir description, putting ground alongside variety as part of the red wine’s frame. Neither bottle is presented as a single-vineyard wine, so the useful distinction is clear labelling of origin and soil context, not an invented parcel story.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Reh Kendermann works through grape sourcing and grower relationships, with harvest monitoring and blending among the tools used to shape its wines. The cellar also handles filtration, stabilisation, storage and bottling in Bingen, allowing a large-volume brand such as Black Tower and more grape-specific wines to be made within the same business. In Kalkstein Riesling, fine-lees ageing adds texture after fermentation while no oak is used, keeping apple, grapefruit and citrus in the foreground rather than covering them with barrel flavour.
Wines to know
The range in view
Black Tower is divided into Classic, Club Edition and Bubbly ranges, separating everyday still wines, a more styled club range and sparkling wines rather than giving every label one fixed taste. Alongside it, Pfalz Kalkstein Riesling is a dry Riesling with fine-lees ageing and no oak; its fruit profile centres on apple, grapefruit and citrus. Pinot Noir Terra Quartär gives the range a red-wine lane, pairing Pinot Noir with a stated soil context. Club Edition Riesling is another distinct expression, using lees ageing for more texture and structure around its fruit character.
Kalkstein Riesling begins with apple, grapefruit and citrus, then stays dry on the palate. Fine lees broaden the texture without adding oak flavour, so the fruit remains clean and direct through the finish. With age, its documented fruit register can turn from fresh apple and citrus toward baked apple, honey and ripe melon. Club Edition Riesling approaches the grape differently: lees ageing places more weight and texture around its fruit, making it a fuller-shaped alternative rather than a duplicate of Kalkstein.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Pfalz Kalkstein Riesling. It states its essentials plainly: Riesling, Pfalz, dry style, fine-lees ageing and no oak. In youth, expect apple, grapefruit and citrus with a dry, lightly textured palate; later development can bring baked apple, honey and ripe melon. It is the bottle that makes Reh Kendermann’s broader structure easiest to read: a large Bingen-based company using its cellar work to present a clearly named grape and regional origin without burying the fruit beneath barrel character.