Germany · Rheinhessen

Weingut Klieber

A 21-hectare family estate in Hangen-Weisheim, Rheinhessen’s Wonnegau, led by Martin Klieber since 2009.

The producer

Weingut Klieber sits in Hangen-Weisheim, between Alzey and Worms in Rheinhessen’s Wonnegau. Martin Klieber took over his parents’ estate in 2009 after training in viticulture and cellar management at Weinsberg and completing an internship in South Africa. The vineyard area has nearly doubled during his leadership, and the regional directory records 21 hectares today.

The range brings traditional German varieties together with international grapes and cuvées. Confirmed examples include a dry 2020 Riesling made entirely from Riesling and a 2020 Pinot Noir made entirely from Pinot Noir. A later 2024 Pinot Noir was matured in used barriques, while the estate describes controlled non-intervention as its guiding cellar approach.

Known for

Dry Riesling and Pinot Noir within a broad Rheinhessen range of traditional and international varieties.

Notable facts

The story

Martin Klieber’s Return

Martin Klieber first trained as a technician in viticulture and cellar management at Weinsberg, then completed an internship in South Africa. He returned to Hangen-Weisheim and took over his parents’ estate in 2009. The change was followed by a substantial enlargement of the vineyard holding: the area has nearly doubled since he assumed leadership. The regional producer directory now records 21 hectares for Weingut Klieber. Within that larger estate, the range extends from a dry, single-variety Riesling to Pinot Noir, alongside traditional German varieties, international grapes and cuvées.

From the atlas

Weingut Klieber

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Klieber is a family estate in Hangen-Weisheim, a Wonnegau village in Rheinhessen between Alzey and Worms. Martin Klieber took over his parents’ estate in 2009, and the regional producer directory records 21 hectares of vines. That scale supports a range that moves between traditional German varieties, international grapes and cuvées, rather than narrowing the cellar to a single grape or bottle style.

The clearest bottles named in retail records show the two ends of that offer: a 2020 Riesling Trocken made entirely from Riesling, and a 2020 Pinot Noir made entirely from Pinot Noir. The dry Riesling places sweetness firmly in the background; the Pinot Noir brings a red-wine grape into a house whose range is deliberately broader than one regional shorthand.

Place

Hangen-Weisheim sits in the Wonnegau area of Rheinhessen, between Alzey and Worms. For Klieber, that location is the address tying the estate’s 21 hectares and its mixed grape range to one part of Rheinhessen, while the labels can still move from dry Riesling to Pinot Noir and cuvées.

The regional directory also names Hangen-Weisheimer Sommerwende and Gundersheimer Höllenbrand in connection with the estate. Those names locate vineyard wine within the local landscape, but the available material does not attach soil, slope or exposure details to either site; they should be read as named origins, not as ready-made flavour claims.

Soil And Site

No documented soil profile, aspect, vine age or yield figure is available for Klieber’s sites. That matters most in the glass because chalk, clay, stone, altitude and slope are often used to explain acidity, weight, tannin or mineral character; none of those links can be assigned here without overreaching.

What is firm is the estate’s footprint: 21 hectares around its Hangen-Weisheim base, with named sites in Hangen-Weisheim and Gundersheim. The useful comparison is therefore between grapes and bottle styles—dry Riesling beside Pinot Noir—rather than between unverified parcel characters.

Story

The estate’s recent shape is closely tied to Martin Klieber’s arrival at its helm in 2009. Its vineyard area has nearly doubled since then, so the expansion is not simply a change of name on the label: it widened the amount of fruit and the number of wine styles the cellar could carry.

In 2015, the estate added a new wine-storage facility and linked it to modern winemaking methods. Alongside Klieber’s stated principle of controlled non-intervention, the building gives the range a practical setting: fruit from a growing vineyard area can be stored and handled in a newer cellar while the wines are not presented as heavily manipulated products.

Vineyards And Cellar

Klieber describes controlled non-intervention as its main winemaking maxim. In wine terms, that is a direction rather than a recipe: it does not establish fermentation vessel, skin-contact time, lees ageing, sulphur regime or maturation length, but it frames the estate’s wish to avoid unnecessary cellar handling.

One later bottle supplies a more tangible cellar detail. The 2024 Pinot Noir was matured in used barriques. Used barrels can bring a gentler oak imprint than new wood, leaving more space for Pinot Noir fruit, body and tannin to show; that detail belongs to the 2024 wine and should not be extended automatically to every Klieber red.

Wines

The range is built around breadth. Traditional German varieties sit alongside international grapes and cuvées, while the confirmed bottles make the contrast concrete: dry Riesling in white, and varietal Pinot Noir in red. This architecture lets the estate work with citrus-led acidity and dry texture in one wine family, then with Pinot Noir fruit, body and tannin in another.

The 2020 Riesling Trocken is entirely Riesling, and “trocken” establishes a dry finish rather than sweetness. The 2020 Pinot Noir is entirely Pinot Noir, with no sweetness designation supplied. The 2024 Pinot Noir adds the used-barrique detail, introducing oak maturation as a documented part of that particular vintage’s structure.

In The Glass

The safest way into Klieber’s wines is through structure before aroma. The 2020 Riesling Trocken is dry and entirely Riesling, so acidity and citrus fruit are the natural points to test at the table, followed by whether the finish stays dry and clean rather than sweet. Specific aromas, body and mineral character are not documented for that release.

With Pinot Noir, look for the relationship between red fruit, tannin, body and oak. The 2020 is confirmed as pure Pinot Noir; the 2024’s used barriques may contribute a softer wood frame than new oak. Neither detail substitutes for a fixed tasting note, but together they clarify where grape and cellar each enter the red wine’s texture.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the 2020 Riesling Trocken. It is a single-variety Riesling made dry, making its role unusually clear: taste the wine for Riesling fruit, acidity, dry texture and finish without cuvée blending or sweetness obscuring the frame. It also sets up the rest of Klieber’s range well, because the same estate then moves outward to Pinot Noir and other traditional and international varieties.

Anecdote

Martin Klieber completed technician training in viticulture and cellar management at Weinsberg, then went to South Africa for an internship. He returned to his parents’ estate in Hangen-Weisheim and took over its leadership in 2009. In the years after that succession, the vineyard area nearly doubled. The regional directory now records 21 hectares for Weingut Klieber, while the range includes dry Riesling, Pinot Noir, traditional German varieties, international grapes and cuvées.

Final Word

Klieber is worth seeking out for the contrast held inside one Hangen-Weisheim estate: a dry, single-variety Riesling on one side of the range and Pinot Noir, including a later used-barrique release, on the other. Begin with the Riesling’s acidity and dry finish, then move to the red for fruit, tannin and oak’s supporting role.

Sources

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