Weingut Stein

The Stein family's connection to wine can be traced back to the 16th century. Their forebears in Sankt Aldegund on the Mosel lived from the wine trade or worked as cellar masters or coopers, and grew vines for their own use or as a sideline. Heinrich and Erna Stein were the first to devote themselves fully to viticulture, from 1948, and built the present estate from modest beginnings in the post-war years. In the 1950s and 1960s Heinrich Stein followed an uncompromisingly quality-oriented line in vineyard and cellar. His sons Ulrich and Peter took over the business in 1982 and have extended and refined that approach. The estate's legal notice names Peter Stein, at an address in Bullay, as the person responsible for its website. Ulli Stein has owned Haus Waldfrieden in Alf, a former hotel and excursion restaurant built in the 19th century, since 1984; it has hosted wine conferences, workshops, master classes, exhibitions and a cultural programme.

• 16th century: the family's ties to wine in Sankt Aldegund begin, as wine merchants, cellar masters and coopers who grew vines for their own use or as a sideline.
• 1948: Heinrich and Erna Stein turn fully to viticulture and found the estate.
• 1982: their sons Ulrich and Peter take over the business.
• 1984: Haus Waldfrieden in Alf, a former hotel and excursion restaurant built in the 19th century, passes into Ulli Stein's ownership.

The brothers Ulrich (Ulli) and Peter Stein, who took over in 1982, run the estate. Ulli Stein graduated with an oenology degree from the University of Geisenheim and completed his PhD studies in biology. He has written the estate's Weinbrief, a letter published each spring that reviews the past growing season and presents the new vintage, since 1975. Peter Stein takes the estate's wine orders and is named in its legal notice. Ruth Schiffer conceived and set up the estate's new website, announced in the 2020 Weinbrief, and with Ulrich Stein signs the 2026 cultural programme at Haus Waldfrieden.

• Ulrich (Ulli) Stein: oenology degree from the University of Geisenheim and PhD studies in biology; author of the Weinbrief since 1975.
• Peter Stein: takes the estate's wine orders; named in the legal notice.
• Ruth Schiffer: set up the website announced in 2020; co-signs the 2026 Waldfrieden cultural programme.

Weingut Stein farms 6.5 hectares of steep slate vineyards. Steep-slope work is largely done by hand: pruning, planting, tying, canopy work and harvesting are all done on foot, and only ploughing and transporting the grapes are eased, depending on the terrain, by tractor, winch and monorail. The Palmberg-Terrassen face south and south-east in a side valley above Sankt Aldegund and are completely terraced, with a gradient of over 60 degrees and countless dry-stone walls; on about 1.1 hectares grow ungrafted Riesling vines 70 to 100 years old, rooted in grey and blue slate and trained on single stakes. The Alfer Hölle lies directly below Haus Waldfrieden, faces south-east, has the status of a separate vineyard site and is wholly owned by the estate; at 1.7 hectares it is the estate's largest contiguous vineyard, planted on iron-rich red slate with 8,000 Riesling vines around fifty years old and 1,000 Cabernet Sauvignon vines thirty years old. In 2011 the estate leased a second vineyard 300 metres from the Alfer Hölle that is also registered as Hölle: the extremely steep, terraced 'small' Hölle, planted in 1900 with 1,200 ungrafted vines. The Himmelreich, at the northern edge of Sankt Aldegund, faces south-east; its ungrafted Riesling vines average eighty years old and grow on single stakes in blue slate, and Spätburgunder, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot share its 2 hectares. Grower Ewald Scherrer has leased the estate his vineyards in Sankt Aldegund, among them a Himmelreich parcel of ungrafted Elbling vines that he planted in 1951. As of 2020, 80% of the estate's Riesling vines were ungrafted; the other 20% were already grafted when the estate acquired those vineyards. As of 2020, the vineyards had been farmed since the estate's founding without herbicides or chemical fertilizers. Yields are held to 4,000 to 6,000 litres per hectare, roughly one bottle per vine. Harvest usually runs from the end of September to the end of October.

• Palmberg-Terrassen (Sankt Aldegund): fully terraced, over 60 degrees; about 1.1 hectares of ungrafted Riesling, 70 to 100 years old, on grey and blue slate.
• Alfer Hölle: 1.7 hectares in sole ownership on iron-rich red slate; 8,000 Riesling vines around fifty years old and 1,000 Cabernet Sauvignon vines.
• Alfer Hölle 1900: terraced parcel leased in 2011, planted in 1900 with 1,200 ungrafted vines.
• Himmelreich (Sankt Aldegund): ungrafted Riesling averaging eighty years old on blue slate, with Spätburgunder, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot on 2 hectares in all; ungrafted Elbling planted in 1951 on a leased parcel.
• Yields of 4,000 to 6,000 litres per hectare; harvest usually from the end of September to the end of October.

Grapes are picked into small crates, transported in them and processed gently in the cellar within a few hours. White grapes are usually pressed in a pneumatic press on the day they are picked. White musts ferment under temperature control and are kept cool on their fine lees in the vaulted cellar; musts for dry wines ferment through in one to three months, and for feinherb or sweet wines fermentation is stopped by cooling to 10 to 12 degrees. The wines mature in stainless steel and wooden casks and are usually bottled in April and May and in August and September. As of 2020, none of the wines were fined. Red grapes are always destemmed and ferment on their skins for one to three weeks, and all of the red wines are dry. The light Red Light is aged in a Fuder cask and Redvolution in a half-Fuder; Spätburgunder and Cuvee X mature in used barriques, and Cabernet and Merlot mostly in new ones. The Sekt is made by the méthode champenoise, with five years on the lees before riddling, and the estate uses its Striehween as the dosage. The Grenzgänger wines, white and red, are destemmed, crushed and left on the skins for several days, then lie 15 to 30 months on their full lees without added sulphur and are bottled without pumping or filtration; because the official testing panel sometimes accepted and sometimes rejected them, the estate sells them as Landwein.

• Hand-picked into small crates; white grapes pressed in a pneumatic press, usually on the day of picking.
• Dry white musts ferment through in one to three months; feinherb and sweet wines are stopped by cooling to 10 to 12 degrees.
• Red Light in a Fuder cask, Redvolution in a half-Fuder, Spätburgunder and Cuvee X in used barriques, Cabernet and Merlot mostly in new barriques.
• Sekt by the méthode champenoise with five years on the lees and Striehween as the dosage.
• Grenzgänger: skin-contact wines aged 15 to 30 months on the full lees without added sulphur, sold as Landwein.

Growing red wine on the Mosel was prohibited by law until 1987. The ban was enacted in 1933 and was carried over in 1970 into the revised wine law. At the start of the 1980s several estates, Weingut Stein among them, announced that they would fight for red wine on the Mosel in court if necessary. The Spätburgunder vines the estate planted in 1987 were among the first red vines in what was then a purely white-wine region, and Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot were approved on the Mosel only in 1997. Strohwein, or straw wine, was made in Germany until 1971, when the wine law prohibited it. For straw wine, fully ripe grapes of at least 85 degrees Oechsle are laid out on straw in airy rooms, where they lose water and their components concentrate. In autumn 2001 the estate asked the wine authority in Trier for permission to produce it, beginning a dispute with the German wine bureaucracy that ended before the European Commission in Brussels: the EU wine market regulation in force from 1 August 2009 permits straw wine production. Because Austria had protected the term Strohwein, the estate proposed the Moselle Franconian dialect term 'Striehween' as a brand name; the proposal was accepted, and the estate registered the name with the German Patent Office. Ulli Stein spent eight years on the dispute. In 2001 the estate added grapes bought from the Erdener Treppchen and Bremmer Calmont to its purchases from the Neefer Frauenberg and Ürziger Würzgarten, and at a growers' meeting in neighbouring Bremm it offered four times the then market price for grapes from those four sites. In January 2010 Jancis Robinson's website published an English translation of Ulli Stein's appeal on the threat to old Riesling vines in the Mosel's steep slate slopes. Commenting on it, David Schildknecht wrote that 'Stein is already a hero for his own multiple-village stretch of the river.'

• Red wine ban on the Mosel: enacted 1933, carried into the 1970 wine law, in force until 1987; the estate planted Spätburgunder in 1987.
• Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot were approved on the Mosel in 1997.
• Strohwein was prohibited in Germany in 1971; the estate's 2001 request led to a dispute settled when the EU wine market regulation in force from 1 August 2009 permitted it.
• The straw wine is sold under the Moselle Franconian dialect name Striehween, registered with the German Patent Office.
• 2010: Ulli Stein's appeal for the Mosel's steep-slope old vines was published in English translation on Jancis Robinson's website.

The estate describes the Steinwein style as 'leicht, frisch, fruchtig und elegant' (light, fresh, fruity and elegant) and writes that each vintage of Steinwein develops its own typical character. It explains that its old vines form the desired aromas at relatively low must weights, allowing dry and feinherb Kabinett wines that are light in alcohol yet rich in flavour and bouquet. German Wines USA's 2020 profile wrote that Stein 'seeks instead to allow the vineyards to express themselves through pure and transparent wines.'

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://stein-weine.de/, https://stein-weine.de/wir/, https://stein-weine.de/anbau/, https://stein-weine.de/ausbau/, https://stein-weine.de/palmberg-terrassen/, https://stein-weine.de/alfer-hoelle/, https://stein-weine.de/himmelreich/, https://stein-weine.de/rotwein-an-der-mosel/, https://stein-weine.de/waldfrieden/, https://stein-weine.de/kultur/, https://stein-weine.de/weinbriefe/, https://stein-weine.de/kontakt/, https://stein-weine.de/impressum/. Secondary sources: German Wines USA, https://germanwineusa.com/whose-wine-is-it-anyway-meet-ulrich-stein-2/ (30 October 2020), and JancisRobinson.com, https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/mosel-news-bad-and-good (13 January 2010). Last verified 2026-10-14. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.