Germany · Franken

Weingut Stein

A small, Riesling-led Mosel estate in Bullay, working steep slopes, slate terraces and old vines by hand.

The producer

Weingut Stein farms about 6.5 hectares in Bullay, Mosel, where steep vineyards demand manual tending and harvest. Riesling accounts for a reported 80% of plantings, with named site bottlings including Himmelreich and Palmberg-Terrassen. The latter brings terraced slate ground and old ungrafted Riesling vines into focus.

Natural cover crops, no herbicides or chemical fertilizers, selective harvesting and fine-lees ageing shape the estate’s white wines. Expect Riesling acidity, citrus and orchard fruit, a lean-to-medium body, stony texture and a dry finish; lees handling adds breadth through the palate without obscuring the fruit.

Known for

Riesling from steep Mosel slopes, especially site wines from slate terraces and old ungrafted vines.

Notable facts

The story

Ulrich Stein’s 2010 manifesto

In 2010, Ulrich Stein published a manifesto calling for collective action to preserve the Mosel’s remaining old vines and steep vineyards. It named a practical problem: many of these slopes require manual work, so continued cultivation depends on people staying with the sites. Stein’s own vineyards supplied a close example. At Alfer Hölle, the estate preserves ungrafted vines planted in 1900, described as among the Mosel’s oldest vines still producing wine. The manifesto placed old plant material, terraced slopes and the labour required to maintain them into the same public conversation, more than a century after those Alfer Hölle vines were planted.

Ulrich Stein’s 2010 manifesto

In 2010, Ulrich Stein published a manifesto calling for collective action to preserve the Mosel’s remaining old vines and steep vineyards. It named a practical problem: many of these slopes require manual work, so continued cultivation depends on people staying with the sites. Stein’s own vineyards supplied a close example. At Alfer Hölle, the estate preserves ungrafted vines planted in 1900, described as among the Mosel’s oldest vines still producing wine. The manifesto placed old plant material, terraced slopes and the labour required to maintain them into the same public conversation, more than a century after those Alfer Hölle vines were planted.

From the atlas

Weingut Stein

At A Glance

The Producer

Weingut Stein is a small Bullay estate whose planting is led by Riesling, the grape behind four-fifths of its reported vineyard area. Heinrich and Erna Stein established the estate in 1948 as the family’s first full-time winegrowers, and Ulrich and Peter Stein took over in 1982. That scale keeps the work close to the vines: steep Mosel sites require manual tending and harvesting, so the estate’s Rieslings begin with fruit selected slope by slope rather than handled as a large-volume blend.

Place

Bullay sits in the Mosel, where vineyards climb steep hillsides above the river. On ground too sharp for routine mechanisation, handwork becomes part of how a wine is made: each pass through the vineyard depends on people reaching the vines. For Riesling, whose acidity can remain vivid while fruit ripens slowly, this setting supports dry wines with lift, light-to-medium body and a firm line through the finish.

The estate also grows Spätburgunder, Cabernet Sauvignon, Elbling, Pink Chardonnay and Merlot in smaller shares. Yet the named bottles to know are Rieslings: Himmelreich and Palmberg-Terrassen. Their labels direct attention to separate sites rather than presenting Mosel Riesling as one uniform style.

Soil And Site

Palmberg-Terrassen is built around terraces and slate, with old ungrafted Riesling vines. Terraces hold vine rows on a difficult slope, while slate forms the physical setting around the roots; old ungrafted material brings a long-established plant population into the bottle. The resulting Palmberg-Terrassen Riesling is a site wine, not simply a general estate cuvée.

Himmelreich has its own documented location, aspect, soils, vine age and planted varieties. Those distinctions matter because aspect and ground alter the conditions in which Riesling ripens, shaping the balance between fruit, acidity and weight before cellar work begins. The two names therefore offer two views of the estate’s Mosel vineyards rather than interchangeable labels.

Story

The Stein family’s Mosel wine history reaches back to the 16th century, but the present estate began when Heinrich and Erna Stein made winegrowing their full-time work in 1948. In 1982, Ulrich and Peter Stein assumed responsibility. Ulrich’s training combines oenology at the University of Geisenheim with doctoral studies in biology, a background that sits alongside a practical farming programme of cover crops and handwork in steep vineyards.

The estate’s history is visible in its raw material. At Alfer Hölle, it preserves ungrafted vines planted in 1900, still producing wine. Such vines connect a dated planting to present-day fruit, while the estate’s small area keeps attention on a limited number of slopes and parcels.

Vineyards And Cellar

Natural cover crops grow in the vineyards, and the estate works without herbicides or chemical fertilizers. Cover between the rows keeps living plant material in the vineyard floor; on steep slopes, that work accompanies the manual care required by the terrain. Selective harvesting and attention to yields then narrow the crop before grapes enter the cellar, concentrating the decision-making around sound fruit rather than volume.

For white wines, the estate documents fermentation, storage on fine lees, pressing, filtration and maturation in more than one type of vessel before bottling. Fine lees are the spent yeast cells left after fermentation; holding wine with them can add texture and a broader mid-palate. In a Riesling-led range, that cellar sequence can soften the edges of high acidity without replacing citrus fruit or dry, slate-shaped grip with overt oak flavour.

Wines

Riesling provides the framework of the range, from which the named 2023 Himmelreich and Palmberg-Terrassen bottlings separate individual sites. Both are Riesling wines, yet Palmberg-Terrassen brings terraces, slate and old ungrafted vines to its label, while Himmelreich is anchored in a separately documented vineyard. Across those wines, expect acidity to carry the structure, with citrus and orchard-fruit character meeting a dry, stony texture and a finish shaped more by fruit and site than by sweetness.

Spätburgunder supplies a smaller red-wine strand, while Cabernet Sauvignon, Elbling, Pink Chardonnay and Merlot broaden the planting mix. The range is therefore wider than Riesling alone, but its core remains Mosel white wine: lightness of body, fresh acidity, fruit clarity and the textural influence of lees ageing.

In The Glass

Start with the nose: Riesling from these steep Mosel sites can show citrus, apple and floral notes, with a stony, earth-toned edge beside the fruit. On the palate, acidity arrives first and keeps the body lean; fine-lees ageing adds a little width through the middle, so the wine need not feel thin. Slate terraces, old vines and selective harvest provide the vineyard material, while fermentation and lees storage shape how that material sits in the mouth.

The finish should feel dry and persistent rather than sweet or heavy. Citrus, mineral character and a faint savoury grip can remain after the fruit fades, leaving a wine suited to food with salt, smoke or richness: grilled fish, pork, mushrooms or a creamy potato dish all meet its acidity and low-to-moderate weight well.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose the 2023 Palmberg-Terrassen Riesling. It is a site-labelled Weingut Stein Riesling from terraced slate ground with old ungrafted vines, bringing the estate’s central materials into one bottle: steep Mosel land, old plantings and Riesling. Look for dry acidity, citrus fruit, a lean body and a stony texture, with lees-derived breadth in the mid-palate and a long, mineral finish. Palmberg-Terrassen makes the connection between a difficult hillside and the estate’s white-wine handling easy to taste.

Anecdote

In 2010, Ulrich Stein published a manifesto calling for collective action to preserve the Mosel’s remaining old vines and steep vineyards. The subject was not an abstract idea of heritage but a physical vineyard landscape: old plants still growing on slopes where routine machine work is difficult. Stein’s own estate includes ungrafted vines planted in 1900 at Alfer Hölle, among the Mosel’s oldest vines still producing wine. The manifesto placed those remaining old-vine and steep-slope sites in public view at a moment when their continued cultivation required people to keep working them by hand.

Final Word

Weingut Stein is worth seeking out for Riesling rooted in steep Mosel work: hand-tended slopes, slate terraces, old vines and cellar ageing on fine lees. Palmberg-Terrassen and Himmelreich turn those vineyard differences into bottles with dry acidity, fruit, texture and a clear sense of place.

Sources

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