Hock (wine)
general term for white wine from Rhine region
Hock is a British term for German white wine. It sometimes refers to white wine from the Rhine region (specifically Riesling) and sometimes to all German white wine. The word hock is short for the obsolete word hockamore, an alteration of "Hochheimer", derived from the name of the town of Hochheim am Main in Germany. Over the years, hock-shaped bottles have come to signify sweet, cheap wine in general.
The term seems to have been in use in the 17th century, initially for white wines (predominantly Riesling) from the Rheingau, but in the 18th century it came to be used for any German white wine sold in Britain, to convey some of the then very high prestige of Rheingau wine to (often much) lesser German wines.
It seems probable that Queen Victoria's visit in 1850 to Hochheim (in Rheingau) and its vineyards during harvest time contributed to the continued use of the term. Supposedly by HOCHheim becoming shortened to HOCH and the hard German CH becoming written as CK to aid English speakers in its pronunciation. By then, those Rheingau wines commanded high prices, on par with, and sometimes higher than, the best wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy, matching and sometimes exceeding them in prestige.
There are many vineyards associated with Hocks, such as Hochheimer, Rüdesheimer, Marcobrunner and Johannisberger.
“Hock (wine)” enters the record as general term for white wine from Rhine region. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hock, wine and general can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Hock (wine)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Hock, wine and general provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q883138. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1850.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Hock (wine)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Hock (wine) primary sources, Hock (wine) archive and Hock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hock (wine)”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Hock (wine)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.