Germany · Rheingau

Weingut Bernhard Mehrlein

A third-generation Oestrich-Winkel estate with more than 60 hectares, built around dry and off-dry Riesling.

The producer

Weingut Bernhard Mehrlein works more than 60 hectares in Oestrich-Winkel, with Riesling covering 97% of the vineyards. South-facing sites contain Taunus quartzite, loam, gravel and prehistoric Rhine sand deposits, while Thorsten Mehrlein runs the family company as its third generation. The estate’s size gives it room for a broad Riesling range without moving its focus away from one grape.

A 1996 shift toward dry white wines still shapes the bottles: dry and off-dry Rieslings, including vineyard-designated labels, form the centre of the range. Calles Riesling is a useful first encounter because the documented 2024 release is entirely Riesling and the 2021 vintage was assessed as capable of six to seven years of ageing.

Known for

Dry and off-dry Rheingau Riesling from south-facing Oestrich-Winkel vineyards.

Notable facts

The story

The 2015 Handover

In 2015, Thorsten Mehrlein took over Weingut Bernhard Mehrlein from his father. The handover placed the third generation of the family in charge of the Oestrich-Winkel estate, whose vineyards extend across more than 60 hectares and are planted overwhelmingly to Riesling. By then, the winery had already redirected its work toward dry white wines in 1996, while its growth had been described as entirely internal. Thorsten stepped into a company with south-facing vineyards on Taunus quartzite, loam, gravel and prehistoric Rhine sand deposits, and with a Riesling range that included dry, off-dry and vineyard-designated wines.

From the atlas

Weingut Bernhard Mehrlein

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Bernhard Mehrlein is a family estate in Oestrich-Winkel whose scale is unusual for a business still run by its third generation. Thorsten Mehrlein owns and operates more than 60 hectares, and Riesling accounts for 97% of the plantings. That concentration gives the range a clear centre: labels may vary by sweetness level, vineyard name and market, but Riesling is the grape carrying the estate’s main work.

The regional profile places Mehrlein among the Rheingau’s largest wineries and describes its expansion as internally generated. The consequence is a substantial vineyard base without a move away from family management: the estate says it tends its vineyards itself and adapts work to each site.

Place

Oestrich-Winkel sits in the Rheingau, where Mehrlein works south-facing vineyards. For this estate, place appears most plainly through Riesling and through vineyard-designated labels: a named vineyard can stand beside the Rheingau name, narrowing the wine’s origin from region to site.

That matters across a 60-plus-hectare holding. A dry Riesling and an off-dry Riesling can begin with the same central grape, while vineyard names allow bottles from particular places to remain distinct within a large Riesling-led range.

Soil And Site

Mehrlein’s south-facing vineyards contain Taunus quartzite, loam, gravel and prehistoric Rhine sand deposits. These are the physical materials under the vines, rather than a single uniform ground across the estate. The family’s site-by-site vineyard work follows from that variety: separate sites require separate attention before grapes reach the cellar.

The packet does not support assigning a fixed flavour to each soil type. What is established is the combination of southern exposure and mixed ground across an estate whose wines are built overwhelmingly from Riesling.

Story

The defining turn in the modern range came in 1996, when the winery shifted its focus toward dry white wines. With Riesling already the dominant planting, that decision gave the estate a firm direction: dry white Riesling became the main frame, while off-dry wines remained part of the offer.

Growth followed from within the company rather than from an externally assembled patchwork of holdings. By the time the estate was described as the Rheingau’s seventh largest, it had more than 60 hectares under cultivation and a range still anchored in Riesling. The result is a producer where scale and grape focus sit together rather than pulling the wines in many directions.

Vineyards And Cellar

Mehrlein says it manages its own vineyards and adjusts vineyard work to individual needs. On an estate spread across quartzite, loam, gravel and Rhine sand, that approach keeps the growing decisions close to each block before harvest.

The estate also reports an Eco-Step integrated management system, sustainability-related certification from 2008, and ISO certifications covering quality, environmental, occupational and food-safety management. These are systems for organising the work around the wine; the more immediate bottle consequence is a range built from estate-grown Riesling rather than a collection of purchased styles.

Wines

Dry and off-dry Riesling form the core range. Vineyard-designated wines add named sites to that structure, so the label can move from a regional Rheingau statement toward a more specific vineyard origin. Some wines are vinified exclusively for partners, meaning availability can differ by market without changing the estate’s Riesling focus.

Calles Riesling is the best-documented white wine in the range. The 2024 version reviewed by Aperitif is entirely Riesling, while the 2021 was judged capable of ageing for six to seven years. That makes Calles a useful example of the estate’s dry-white direction with room for bottle age, rather than merely a young regional wine.

There is also a separate red branch: Calle Fegth Edition Rheingau Spätburgunder. Its presence keeps the range from being exclusively white, but the planting figures make the hierarchy clear—Riesling remains the estate’s principal grape and the main lens through which to approach Mehrlein.

In The Glass

The first choice is sweetness position. Mehrlein’s dry Rieslings place the range on the dry-white path established in 1996, while the off-dry wines retain more sweetness than their dry counterparts. Vineyard-designated bottles then add a place name to that Riesling framework.

Calles Riesling brings another dimension: it is 100% Riesling in the documented 2024 release, and the 2021 assessment allowed six to seven years of ageing. That combination suggests a bottle intended to be followed over time, with dry Riesling structure at its centre rather than a wine defined by oak or a blended grape recipe.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Calles Riesling. It is a documented, entirely Riesling bottling in the 2024 review, and the 2021 vintage was assessed as capable of six to seven years of ageing. Its role is straightforward: it joins Mehrlein’s dry-white direction to the estate’s dominant grape, without requiring a claim that it is the top wine or a single vineyard’s definitive expression.

Choose a current release when you want to see the estate’s Riesling focus in its present form; choose an older bottle when available to explore the ageability noted for the 2021. Either way, the label leads directly back to Oestrich-Winkel, the estate’s 97% Riesling planting and the dry-white decision made in 1996.

Anecdote

In 2015, Thorsten Mehrlein took over Weingut Bernhard Mehrlein from his father. The handover placed a third-generation Mehrlein in charge of the Oestrich-Winkel company, with more than 60 hectares under cultivation and Riesling across 97% of its plantings. The estate’s move toward dry white wines had begun in 1996, so Thorsten stepped into a business already organised around a Riesling-led range. The family continued to tend its own south-facing vineyards, where Taunus quartzite, loam, gravel and prehistoric Rhine sand deposits sit beneath the vines.

Final Word

Mehrlein is a Rheingau estate to seek out for the scale of its Riesling commitment: a family-run Oestrich-Winkel producer, south-facing mixed soils, dry and off-dry wines, and a documented Calles Riesling that can develop beyond its first years in bottle.

Sources

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