Hattenheim Steinberg

Kloster Eberbach was founded in 1136, when, according to the estate's own history, the first 13 Cistercian monks arrived from Clairvaux. The VDP's site profile says the Steinberg as an individual site goes back to those monks and was already listed in 1211 in the property register 'Oculus Memorie'. The estate says the Steinberg has been owned by Eberbach Abbey since 1239 and was already considered the Cistercians' favourite vineyard at that time, and that its oldest parcel, the Zehntstück, was planted with vines before the monastery was founded in 1136. In the 18th century, by the estate's account, a wall was built around the entire Steinberg to protect it from grape thieves. Secularisation reached Eberbach in 1803, when the abbey passed to Friedrich August von Nassau-Usingen; after the Duchy of Nassau was annexed by Prussia following the war of 1866, a royal Prussian wine domain administration was set up, and in 1945 the monastery became property of the State of Hesse, administered by the Hessische Staatsweingüter (estate history, fetched 2026). In 2003 the wine estate was transferred into the Hessische Staatsweingüter GmbH Kloster Eberbach, which keeps its seat at the abbey.

• Steinbergkeller: the estate inaugurated its Steinberg cellar in 2008 and says it received the Architekturpreis Wein (Wine Architecture Prize) in 2010; gravity alone moves grapes and must over three floors into the 14-metre-deep cellar
• The DWI (fetched 2026) says the Steinbergkeller opened in summer 2008 several hundred metres from the old monastery, can process up to 7,000 litres of grape juice a day, and has cellars of 5,000 square metres reaching below the Steinberg, which it calls the oldest vineyard site in Eberbach
• The DWI puts the Hessian State Wineries at 200 hectares of vineyards across six domains, five in the Rheingau and one on the Hessische Bergstraße; that figure covers the whole estate, not the Steinberg
• At a rarities tasting at Kloster Eberbach reported by wein.plus, an 1846 Steinberger bottled in the Duke of Nassau's Cabinets-Keller was opened, and the report says only two bottles of Steinberg were then left in the treasure chamber

The Steinberg lies about 900 metres from Kloster Eberbach in the direction of Hattenheim, according to the estate. The estate says the slope faces south and that the Steinberg is characterised by three types of soil: Taunus slate in the upper part, quartzite in the middle, and loess loam at the foot. The VDP's profile of the Steinberg Zehntstück (fetched 2026) gives an elevation of 145 to 250 metres, a gradient of 35 to 40 percent, a south-southwest aspect and sandy to clayey loam soils. The DWI says the wall provides a special climate for the Riesling grapes growing on the slope, and the VDP adds that it was originally meant to protect against grape thieves but also against cold air from the nearby forest.

• Soils by slope position (estate, fetched 2026): Taunus slate in the upper part, quartzite in the middle, loess loam at the foot
• Goldener Becher: the estate places this plot in the upper part of the Steinberg
• Zehntstück (VDP, fetched 2026): 145 to 250 metres, 35 to 40 percent gradient, south-southwest aspect, sandy to clayey loam
• Wall: three kilometres long according to the estate, a 3,000-metre wall of quarry stones according to the DWI, and up to five metres high in the VDP's Zehntstück profile

Riesling is the classified variety for both Steinberg parcels in the VDP's database, and the estate says that between Kloster Eberbach and Hattenheim everything revolves around Riesling. The estate makes three tiers of wine from the site: its GOLDENER BECHER Steinberg Riesling GG (VDP.Grosse Lage) from the Goldener Becher plot in the upper Steinberg, its Steinberger Zehntstück Riesling VDP.Erste Lage from the Zehntstück, and VDP.Ortsweine from the remaining plots. The estate says the Steinberg's soils of Taunus slate, loess-loam and quartzite are sometimes decisive for the expressive character of the wine, and its description of the 2025 Steinberg Riesling trocken notes white peach, pineapple, lime and honeysuckle with firm acidity. Its cabinet cellars, where wines are vinified and matured into dry and noble sweet top wines, are located in the Assmannshausen and Steinberg domains, according to the estate.

• GOLDENER BECHER Steinberg Riesling GG: VDP.Grosse Lage, from the Goldener Becher plot in the upper Steinberg (estate)
• Steinberger Zehntstück Riesling: VDP.Erste Lage, from the parcel the estate calls the Steinberg's oldest
• Steinberg Riesling trocken: VDP.Ortswein from the remaining plots of the Steinberg (estate)
• Historic sweet wines: wein.plus described a 1973 Steinberger Eiswein Beerenauslese with dark honey and antique-wood notes and fresh acidity among the rarities opened at Kloster Eberbach

Kloster Eberbach's estate says its Steinberg monopole classifies as a VDP.Grosse Lage. The VDP's own vineyard database (fetched 2026) lists the Steinberg Goldener Becher parcel, Hattenheim, as a VDP.Grosse Lage with 0.62 hectares classified for Riesling, and the Steinberg Zehntstück as a VDP.Erste Lage with 3.59 hectares classified for Riesling, naming Kloster Eberbach as the VDP grower working each site; it says the Zehntstück is solely owned by the Hessische Staatsweingüter. On labelling, the VDP says that since 1971 Steinberg has been, under the wine law, an Ortsteil (district) of Hattenheim, so Hattenheim is not additionally named on the label. Decanter (2002) records that by the early 1990s Bernhard Breuer and Graf Matuschka were arguing for a vineyard classification that would let growers highlight top vineyard sites such as Steinberg and Erbacher Marcobrunn on their labels. The estate's own history calls the Steinberg the oldest monopole site in the world.

• Estate position: the Steinberg monopole classifies as a VDP.Grosse Lage (estate, fetched 2026)
• VDP database: Steinberg Goldener Becher, VDP.Grosse Lage, 0.62 hectares classified for Riesling (fetched 2026)
• VDP database: Steinberg Zehntstück, VDP.Erste Lage, 3.59 hectares classified for Riesling (fetched 2026)
• Label: Hattenheim is not added because Steinberg has been an Ortsteil of Hattenheim under the wine law since 1971 (VDP)

Primary sources (Deutsches Weininstitut, the VDP and Weingut Kloster Eberbach's own site): https://www.winesofgermany.com/our-regions/highlight-of-wine-culture/156/kloster-eberbach, https://www.vdp.de/de/die-weine/weinbergonline/lage/7326-steinberg-zehntstueck, https://www.vdp.de/de/die-weine/weinbergonline/lage/7328-steinberg-goldener-becher, https://kloster-eberbach.de/de/wein/weingut/domaene-steinberg, https://kloster-eberbach.de/de/wein/weingut/geschichte-weingut, https://kloster-eberbach.de/en/wein/unsere-weine/unsere-weinberge, https://kloster-eberbach.de/en/wein/weingut/domaene-steinberg, https://kloster-eberbach.de/en/wein/weingut, https://kloster-eberbach.de/en/wein/unsere-weine. Secondary sources: https://www.decanter.com/features/rheingau-high-and-dry-248976/, https://magazine.wein.plus/rarities-tasting-at-eberbach-monastery-one-hundred-vintages-of-riesling-since-1846. Last verified 2026-09-28