Germany · Pfalz

Weingut Isegrim

A Wolf-family estate in Ungstein, Pfalz, making Riesling, Auxerrois and bottle-fermented Riesling Sekt from Bioland-certified vineyards.

The producer

Weingut Isegrim sits in Ungstein, Bad Dürkheim, on the Mittelhaardt stretch of the Deutsche Weinstraße. Mira Wolf represents the family’s third generation and brings formal viticulture training to an estate whose organic record reaches back to Bioland certification in 1984. Permanent green cover, plant- and mineral-based vineyard preparations, and sheep grazing shape the rows before fruit reaches the cellar.

The range moves through House, Village, Site and Dance wines, with Riesling, Auxerrois and Riesling Sekt Brut Nature showing distinct routes through the cellar. Riesling Herrenberg places a named site beside dry, acid-led white wine; Auxerrois brings more body and texture; bottle fermentation and lees ageing give the Brut Nature Sekt dry citrus fruit, mousse and a yeast-shaped finish.

Known for

Bioland-certified Pfalz wines, spanning dry Riesling, Auxerrois and bottle-fermented Riesling Sekt.

Notable facts

The story

The 1984 Bioland Certificate

Before Isegrim received its Bioland certificate, the Wolf family spent time experimenting in its Ungstein vineyards and exchanging ideas with other organic growers. Organic viticulture was unusual enough at the time for some observers to regard the project as eccentric. In 1984, the estate obtained its certificate. The date came well before Mira Wolf’s current third-generation role, but it remains part of the working vineyard record behind Isegrim’s wines: permanent green cover between the vines, grazing sheep that also fertilise, and plant- and mineral-based preparations made with materials including nettle, horsetail, algae extract, sulphur and limited copper.

From the atlas

Weingut Isegrim

At A Glance

Weingut Isegrim is a Wolf-family estate in Ungstein, Bad Dürkheim, in the Mittelhaardt stretch of the Deutsche Weinstraße. Its wines include Riesling, Auxerrois and bottle-fermented Riesling Sekt; the range is arranged as House, Village, Site and Dance wines, so a label can point to a different part of the estate’s offer rather than one undifferentiated style.

Mira Wolf represents the family’s third generation and has a degree in viticulture. Her training sits alongside a farming record that reaches back to Bioland certification in 1984, with green cover, plant-based preparations and sheep all working in the vines that supply Isegrim’s bottles.

The Producer

Isegrim makes around 70,000 bottles a year, from an estate associated with Ungstein and named sites including Bettelhaus. The Wolf family’s wines move from everyday House bottlings through Village and Site labels to Dance wines, while Riesling Herrenberg, Auxerrois and Riesling Sekt Brut Nature show that still white wine and sparkling wine are both central to the cellar.

Mira Wolf’s third-generation role links family continuity to formal viticultural study. That combination is most visible in the way the estate treats its Riesling and Auxerrois as products of living vineyard rows before they become labelled wines.

Place

Ungstein lies within Bad Dürkheim, in Pfalz’s Mittelhaardt/Deutsche Weinstraße area. On an Isegrim label, that place sits behind wines such as Ungstein Auxerrois Kabinett trocken: the village name narrows the wine’s origin beyond the broad Pfalz region and connects the bottle to the estate’s home ground.

Riesling Herrenberg adds a named vineyard reference to the range. It places a site name beside the grape, while the broader House, Village, Site and Dance structure lets Isegrim organise wines by more than variety alone.

Soil And Site

Bettelhaus is identified among Isegrim’s single-vineyard sites. The available material does not attach a soil type to that name, but the site designation still matters on a wine label: it separates a vineyard-specific source from a broader village or estate wine.

Herrenberg is another named point of reference through the current Riesling Herrenberg. The wine therefore offers a direct link between a Riesling bottle and a particular site name, rather than treating Pfalz as the only origin worth reading.

Story

Organic work at Isegrim was established before Mira Wolf’s generation took the lead. After a period of experimentation and exchange with other growers, the estate secured Bioland certification in 1984; the vineyard practices now include permanent cover and preparations made from nettle, horsetail, algae extract, sulphur and limited copper.

After assuming full responsibility, Mira removed cultured yeast and technical corrections from the cellar. For wines such as Riesling Herrenberg and Auxerrois, the consequence is a process that begins with the fruit and its fermentation rather than a standardised yeast selection or later adjustment.

Vineyards And Cellar

Permanent green cover runs between Isegrim’s vines as conditions fluctuate through the season. Sheep graze this cover and fertilise the ground, while plant and mineral preparations are used for vineyard protection; the practical result is that Riesling and Auxerrois are grown in rows managed as a planted system rather than bare soil between trunks.

In the cellar, the documented move away from cultured yeast and technical corrections keeps fermentation close to the harvested fruit. That does not promise one fixed flavour, but it means the dry Riesling, Auxerrois and sparkling base wines begin without a cultured-yeast recipe imposed across the range.

Bottle-fermented Riesling Sekt takes a different route after fermentation. Its bubbles form in bottle and the wine spends time on lees, bringing mousse and lees-derived texture into a range otherwise led by still white wines.

Wines

House, Village, Site and Dance wines provide Isegrim’s visible range structure. The names are useful because they place different bottles beside one another without pretending that Riesling, Auxerrois and sparkling wine perform the same job in the glass.

Riesling Herrenberg is the site-named Riesling in the documented current offer. It is the bottle for following a Riesling grape through a named vineyard reference, with dry white-wine structure and acidity at the centre of the style rather than mousse or residual sweetness.

Auxerrois 2024 and the 2023 Ungstein Auxerrois Kabinett trocken show another white-wine path. Auxerrois changes the range’s texture and body away from Riesling’s acid-led frame, while the Ungstein name ties one documented bottling directly to the estate’s village.

Riesling Sekt Brut Nature is the range’s sparkling counterpoint. Bottle fermentation and lees ageing bring mousse and texture; Brut Nature signals a dry finish, making it structurally distinct from the still Riesling and Auxerrois wines.

In The Glass

The clearest sensory contrast is between the still wines and the Riesling Sekt Brut Nature. The Sekt’s bottle fermentation supplies mousse, while lees ageing contributes texture; its Brut Nature designation places the finish at the dry end, so citrus-like Riesling fruit is carried by bubbles rather than by still-wine weight.

Riesling Herrenberg turns attention back to a dry white wine shaped around acidity and finish. Its site name asks the glass to be read as Riesling from Herrenberg, where fruit, body and acidity matter more than the creamy mousse associated with the sparkling wine.

Auxerrois occupies a different position. In the documented Auxerrois wines, the grape offers body and texture as the useful contrast to Riesling’s acid-led profile, while the dry Ungstein Kabinett connects that softer structural register to a specific village name.

A Bottle To Understand It

Begin with Riesling Sekt Brut Nature. It is Isegrim Riesling made as bottle-fermented sparkling wine, then aged on lees, so it brings the estate’s grape work and cellar method into one dry glass. Look for firm acidity, fine mousse, citrus fruit and a lees-shaped texture through the finish. It also makes the difference between a grape wine and a method wine immediately physical: Riesling’s fruit is present, but the bottle fermentation changes its body and movement across the palate.

Anecdote

The vineyard rows behind Isegrim’s Riesling and Auxerrois had already been through a period of experimentation when the estate pursued Bioland certification. The Wolf family exchanged ideas with other organic growers and tested the approach in its Ungstein vineyards at a time when organic viticulture was unusual enough for some observers to view it as eccentric. In 1984, the estate received its Bioland certificate. The date remains attached to Isegrim’s farming record, before permanent green cover, sheep grazing and the plant- and mineral-based preparations became documented features of the vines.

Final Word

Isegrim is most legible through contrast: dry Riesling with a named site, Auxerrois with a different body and texture, and a Brut Nature Riesling Sekt shaped by bottle fermentation and lees. Behind all three sits an Ungstein estate whose vineyard work has been Bioland-certified since 1984.

Sources

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