Germany · Rheinhessen

Weinmanufaktur Frey

A family-run Rheinhessen estate working limestone sites for Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot wines.

The producer

Weinmanufaktur Frey is a four-generation family winery in Ober-Flörsheim, southwestern Rheinhessen, where Philipp and Christopher Frey work with their father Stefan from vineyard through bottling. Its holdings stretch about 20 kilometres between Biebelnheim and Ober-Flörsheim, bringing warmer parcels and higher-elevation ground into the same family cellar.

Massive Tertiary-era limestone underpins the estate’s sites, with Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot varieties planted on loamy and clayey limestone soils. Pazzione Riesling blends later-picked fruit from warmer sites with grapes from higher-elevation limestone vineyards; Yoko Pinot Noir Organic 2023 offers the red side of the range, with raspberry, forest berries, sloe and violet.

Known for

Limestone-grown Riesling and Pinot wines shaped by sites spread across southwestern Rheinhessen.

Notable facts

The story

How Pazzione Was Assembled

The Frey brothers made Pazzione Riesling in Rheinhessen to Pernilla Wahlgren’s wishes, drawing on fruit from contrasting parts of their vineyard holdings. Rather than relying on one picking or one site, they blended later-picked grapes from warmer locations with grapes grown in higher-elevation limestone vineyards. The warmer component brought a riper harvest condition into the blend, while the elevated limestone fruit came from a different growing position. Pazzione was therefore assembled from distinct vineyard conditions within the Freys’ Rheinhessen work, then bottled as one Riesling.

From the atlas

Weinmanufaktur Frey

At A Glance

Weinmanufaktur Frey is a four-generation family winery in Ober-Flörsheim, southwestern Rheinhessen. Philipp and Christopher Frey work alongside their father, Stefan, from vineyard to bottling; the result is a range built around Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot varieties rather than a single grape or site.

Its vineyards run for about 20 kilometres between Biebelnheim and Ober-Flörsheim. That spread puts warmer sites beside higher-elevation limestone vineyards, allowing a wine such as Pazzione Riesling to combine later-picked fruit with fruit from elevated ground.

The Producer

The Frey family’s winegrowing roots reach back to the 18th century, while the present estate is run by Philipp and Christopher Frey with their father Stefan. Their shared work from vine to bottle matters because the same family oversees the fruit grown across the estate’s scattered holdings and the finished wines made from it.

The winery’s own page reports 23 hectares and annual production of about 15,000 cases. Published vineyard-area figures differ elsewhere, but the scale on the estate’s site helps place Frey between a small family address and a large-volume brand: enough ground for several varieties and sites, with production still tied to one family team.

Place

Ober-Flörsheim is described by the estate as southwestern Rheinhessen’s highest-elevation municipality. Frey’s vineyards then extend north and south towards Biebelnheim, so a bottle labelled by the winery may bring together fruit grown well beyond the home village rather than claiming one compact block of land.

That geography is especially useful in understanding Pazzione Riesling. The wine was assembled from later-picked grapes in warmer sites and grapes from higher-elevation limestone vineyards, making its profile a deliberate conversation between ripeness and cooler-positioned fruit.

Soil And Site

Massive Tertiary-era limestone is the physical foundation Frey names for its vineyard ground. Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot varieties grow on loamy and clayey limestone soils, so soil is not a decorative detail here: it is the common base beneath a range that moves between white and red grapes.

The estate’s sites also differ in elevation and warmth. Rather than claiming a fixed flavour for every parcel, Frey uses that variation concretely in Pazzione, where warmer-site fruit is joined to fruit from high-elevation limestone vineyards.

Story

Frey’s story is one of long family continuity meeting a broad vineyard footprint. Winegrowing roots reach to the 18th century, but Philipp and Christopher Frey now work with Stefan across sites spread over roughly 20 kilometres; the practical consequence is a cellar supplied by different grapes, soils and ripening conditions.

Since 2013, the family has followed EU organic-viticulture guidelines. That is a farming commitment applied across the estate’s varied holdings, linking the Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot grapes in the range to one stated approach in the vineyard.

Vineyards And Cellar

The official winery material covers harvesting, pressing, fermentation and maturation as parts of Frey’s winemaking, while the supplied evidence confirms no individual timings or vessel details. What is clear is the sequence of control: Philipp and Christopher Frey work with Stefan from the vineyard through bottling, connecting site selection and cellar work within the same family operation.

Organic-viticulture guidelines have been part of that work since 2013. Across loamy and clayey limestone soils, the family grows Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot varieties; the wines therefore begin with distinct grapes and sites before any blending decision brings them together.

Wines

The range has three clear grape families: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot varieties. That architecture allows Frey to move from white wines rooted in limestone soils to Pinot-based reds, rather than asking one grape to carry the whole estate’s story.

Pazzione Riesling is the most explicit example of assembly across sites. Later-picked grapes from warmer places are blended with fruit from high-elevation limestone vineyards, joining ripe fruit with citrus, floral and saline notes reported for the wine, alongside noticeable acidity.

Yoko Pinot Noir Organic 2023 provides the contrasting red-wine anchor. It is made entirely from Pinot Noir and is reported to show raspberry, forest berries, sloe and violet: a red-fruited, floral register that sits apart from Pazzione’s Riesling profile.

In The Glass

Pazzione Riesling opens through fruit, floral notes and citrus, then carries a saline note and acidity. Its shape follows the wine’s construction: later-picked warmer-site grapes supply the riper component, while high-elevation limestone fruit forms the other half of the blend.

Yoko Pinot Noir Organic 2023 moves in a different aromatic direction. Raspberry and forest berries lead, sloe adds a darker berry note, and violet brings a floral lift; because it is 100% Pinot Noir, those reported aromas belong to a single-variety red rather than a multi-grape blend.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Yoko Pinot Noir Organic 2023. It is a 100% Pinot Noir with reported raspberry, forest-berry, sloe and violet aromas, and it offers a direct view of Frey’s Pinot work on the estate’s limestone-based soils. The bottle also gives the range a useful counterweight to its Riesling: red fruit and floral perfume first, rather than citrus, salinity and acidity.

Anecdote

When Pernilla Wahlgren wanted a Riesling made in Rheinhessen, the Frey brothers produced Pazzione Riesling to her wishes. The wine was not built from one picking or one vineyard position. They blended later-picked grapes from warmer sites with fruit grown in high-elevation limestone vineyards, bringing together two separate harvest conditions in the same bottle. The named wine therefore records a specific collaboration between Wahlgren’s requested style and the Freys’ spread of sites between Biebelnheim and Ober-Flörsheim. Pazzione was made by the brothers in Rheinhessen, with the warmer fruit and the elevated limestone fruit kept as distinct components before the blend was assembled.

Final Word

Frey is most clearly understood through its spread of vineyards: Riesling can draw on warmer and higher-elevation limestone sites in Pazzione, while Yoko shows Pinot Noir through raspberry, sloe and violet. Behind both is a family estate in Ober-Flörsheim whose work runs from vine to bottle.

Sources

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