Germany · Mosel

Schmitt Söhne

Schmitt Söhne is a fifth-generation, family-owned wine company based in Longuich on the Mosel. Riesling runs through its history and range, from lightly sweet Mosel Kabinett to sparkling wine and concentrated Rheinhessen Eiswein.

The producer

Hilar Schmitt founded the company in Longuich in 1919, building on family wine activity there that reached back more than two centuries. The Mosel remains its home and Riesling its central grape; Thomas Schmitt Private Collection Riesling Kabinett pairs 30–40 g/L residual sugar with 8–9 g/L acidity, so sweet fruit stays light-bodied and fresh on the finish.

The range shows how widely Riesling can move. Relax Riesling QbA is more openly sweet, with 38–40 g/L residual sugar balanced by 7.5–8.5 g/L acidity; RELAX Bubbles brings sparkling mousse into the picture. Schmitt Söhne Eiswein comes from Rheinhessen rather than the Mosel and reaches 150–190 g/L residual sugar, giving it a richer, small-pour dessert-wine role.

Known for

Mosel-rooted Riesling across sweet, sparkling and Eiswein styles.

Notable facts

The story

The Blue Bottle

In 1996, Schmitt Söhne introduced its family-series wines in a distinctive blue bottle. The launch was intended to create a new market trend, giving the series a shelf marker that was physical as well as named. It arrived long after Hilar Schmitt had founded the company as a small regional winery in Longuich in 1919, and after the business had begun to extend its German wines into export markets. The blue glass belonged to the family-series launch itself, rather than to a commemorative bottling or a change in the Mosel Riesling recipe. The family-series wines introduced that year were the bottles in blue.

From the atlas

Schmitt Söhne

At A Glance

Schmitt Söhne is a family-owned, fifth-generation wine company based in Longuich on Germany’s Mosel. Hilar Schmitt founded the company as a small regional winery in 1919, while the family’s work with vineyards and wine in Longuich reaches back more than two centuries. Riesling is the enduring thread: the family has made it along the Mosel for more than a century, then built a range that moves from lightly sweet Kabinett through sparkling wine to concentrated Eiswein.

The Producer

Longuich is both Schmitt Söhne’s home and the place from which its production and operations have grown. The company describes itself as one of Germany’s largest wine exporters, yet its named Mosel Rieslings still turn on the familiar Riesling exchange between residual sugar and acidity. In the Thomas Schmitt Private Collection Kabinett, 30–40 g/L of residual sugar sits beside 8–9 g/L of total acidity, making a wine that can be sweet-fruited without becoming heavy.

Place

The Mosel is Schmitt Söhne’s base, and Riesling is its central grape. That relationship matters most in the Thomas Schmitt Private Collection, whose Kabinett is a Mosel wine and an estate-bottled Riesling. It should not be treated as the origin of every Schmitt Söhne bottle: the Eiswein comes from Rheinhessen, while RELAX Bubbles belongs to the sparkling branch of the range. The label therefore tells you which part of the company’s German wine portfolio is in the glass.

Soil And Site

Schmitt Söhne’s US-facing material places Mosel Riesling in the region’s mineral soils. For the wines, the useful consequence is not a catalogue of vineyard names but the role of acidity: in the Mosel Rieslings, sweetness is held against a bright acid line rather than allowed to spread across the palate. Relax Riesling QbA, for example, has 7.5–8.5 g/L of total acidity alongside 38–40 g/L residual sugar.

Story

The modern company began in 1919, when Hilar Schmitt founded a small regional winery in Longuich. Thomas Schmitt later led its development into an internationally operating business, and Gerd Schmitt began selling the family’s German wines elsewhere in Europe. That outward movement changed the scale of the operation, while Riesling remained the grape that links the Longuich family history to bottles sold beyond the Mosel.

Gerd Schmitt’s sales work also helped establish the United States as the company’s largest market. Juliane Schmitt returned to the Mosel in 2012 and became CEO in 2020, carrying the business into its fifth generation. The result is a portfolio built for several occasions: a sweet-fruited Riesling for immediate pouring, a Mosel Kabinett with a lighter frame, sparkling wine with mousse, and Rheinhessen Eiswein for a much sweeter finish.

Vineyards And Cellar

Schmitt Söhne works from Longuich with its own Mosel vineyards and a network of growers, allowing the company to assemble a broader range than a single-site producer. That scope appears in the bottle styles: Mosel Riesling remains the family’s historic centre, but a Rheinhessen Eiswein can sit beside a sparkling RELAX wine without pretending that every bottle comes from one place.

The clearest confirmed cellar result is balance by analysis. Relax Riesling QbA carries 38–40 g/L residual sugar and 7.5–8.5 g/L acidity; Thomas Schmitt Private Collection Kabinett carries 30–40 g/L residual sugar and 8–9 g/L acidity. The Kabinett’s slightly higher acid range gives its sweet fruit a more lifted, lighter-bodied feel, while the Eiswein’s 150–190 g/L residual sugar moves toward dense, noble-sweet concentration.

Wines

The range begins with Riesling but does not stop at one sweetness level. Relax Riesling QbA is the openly fruity, sweet side of the portfolio: its residual sugar brings ripe fruit and soft weight, while its acidity keeps the finish fresh. Thomas Schmitt Private Collection Riesling Kabinett is the Mosel-facing alternative, with a lighter body and a sharper acid frame around its sweetness.

Schmitt Söhne Eiswein is the concentrated outlier. From Rheinhessen rather than the Mosel, it carries 150–190 g/L residual sugar, placing it in a dessert-wine register with more weight and a richer, sweeter finish. RELAX Bubbles takes the range into sparkling wine, where mousse changes the texture and turns the fruit profile toward a more festive, chilled serve.

In The Glass

Across the still Rieslings, expect fruit first and acidity close behind. Relax Riesling QbA is clearly sweet, with fruit at the centre of the palate and enough acidity to prevent a flat finish. The Thomas Schmitt Kabinett keeps a similar sugar range but brings more total acidity, so the palate feels lighter and the finish more brisk.

Eiswein is a different shape altogether: very high residual sugar gives it concentrated sweetness and fuller body, suited to small pours rather than large glasses. RELAX Bubbles shifts the sensation again, with mousse adding lift and texture. Together, the wines show how Riesling can move from sweet fruit to sparkling refreshment to dense dessert-wine weight without losing acidity as a structural element.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Thomas Schmitt Private Collection Riesling Kabinett. It is a Mosel, estate-bottled Riesling with 30–40 g/L residual sugar and 8–9 g/L total acidity, so it joins the company’s Longuich and Riesling roots to a clear taste experience. Expect sweet fruit, light body, lively acidity and a fresh finish. It comes before the more overtly sweet Relax Riesling or the much richer Eiswein because its sugar-and-acid balance makes the Mosel side of Schmitt Söhne easiest to taste.

Anecdote

In 1996, Schmitt Söhne introduced its family-series wines in a distinctive blue bottle. The launch was an intentional attempt to create a new market trend, not simply a change of label or closure. By then the company had grown far beyond the small regional winery Hilar Schmitt founded in Longuich in 1919, with family wines moving into export markets alongside the Mosel Riesling work. The blue bottle gave that family series a physical marker on a shelf: a coloured package attached to a wine range rather than a one-off commemorative release. The family-series wines introduced that year were the bottles in blue.

Final Word

Schmitt Söhne is most clearly understood through the contrast inside its Riesling-led range: Mosel Kabinett combines sweet fruit with high acidity, Relax Riesling leans more openly fruity, and Rheinhessen Eiswein concentrates sweetness into a smaller, richer pour. Longuich supplies the family base; the labels show how far the wines travel from it.

Sources

Open Schmitt Söhne in the interactive map →