Balthazar Ress

Rheingau, Germany The original Balthasar Ress, the family patriarch, set up a restaurant with its own wine business on the busy main street in Hattenheim, a small village in the Rheingau, Germany. Over the next three generations, this modest business expanded into a bustling negociant and wine production enterprise and one of the most highly regarded hotels in the region, Hotel Kronenschlösschen. Balthasar Ress grew over the post war period and was divided among three surviving nephews to maintain in 1977. Over the next 16 years, the vineyard holdings of this family business increased grew through the systematic lease or purchase of top sites in Hattenheim to the present size, 46 hectares. In 1993, Stefan Ress purchased the former buildings of the local village cooperative winery at Rheinallee 50; it has become an impressive complex and venue for local events.