A view of the steep Calmont vineyard to the left with the villages of Eller and Ediger-Eller in the background.

After reading David Schildknecht’s 2009 vintage profile on Beaujolais, the following passage reminded me of similar problems facing grape-growers in the Mosel region.

It is by now commonplace that Beaujolais is a region in crisis; and the ramifications of so many thousands of small growers increasingly hard-pressed to obtain for their fruit a price that pays them to continue farming—much less farm with an eye toward quality or respect for the land’s sustenance—are indeed dire. This situation will not be turned around anytime soon, nor will it be turned around without a significant loss of total vineyard acreage, bound to include ancient vines on steep but potentially excellent sites. Still, there is hope for this region provided that those growers who are setting an example of diligent stewardship of their terroir and offering distinctively delicious variations on a grape that has only ever risen to distinction in this one, incomparable landscape, are able to command prices that will reward low yields; the nursing of old vines; the back-aching labor of steep slope viticulture; hand-harvesting; and immaculate, imaginative, and attentive vinification. And this hope is of course in our hands, fellow wine lovers. Whether you think you outgrew Beaujolais years ago; whether one or another producer whose wines you tasted in recent years did not inspire you; or even if you never evinced any interest in Beaujolais at all, do please take the 2009 vintage as an opportunity to explore a small range of the wines that I’ve recommended, so that you can at least say from experience what it is that you and those who drink at your table have been missing.

In spite of the loss of precious old Gamay and Riesling vines and the plonk sold as Beaujolais and Mosel by either large bottling companies or poor quality producers, some growers continue to fight on to save old vines and to uphold the best traditions for making top wines. Marcel Lapierre is one of the first names to come to mind in the Beaujolais. His Morgon bottlings are pure and true.

The legendary American importer Frank Schoonmaker once wrote: “In many ways the Mosels are the German white counterparts of Beaujolais.” He was referring, of course, to their charm in youth—fragrance, effervescence, lightness, and fruitiness.

The northern Rhône has much in common with the Mosel too: Roman history, steep slope viticulture, and small farmer-growers with diverse, spread-out parcels. Both are rugged regions—flanked by rustic hill country, such as the Ardèche and Eifel, respectively—and the hillside vineyard work is back-breaking. Syrah in granite, like Riesling in slate, gives the wines their structure and breed.

Many connoisseurs would argue, however, that red Burgundy is more akin to Mosel Riesling, because of their reputation for making some of the finest wines. In addition, the monks played in each region an important role over the centuries as did Napoleon later on. Yet, unlike Burgundy, the Mosel is less sought-after by buyers and collectors nowadays than over a century ago, unless it’s famous names such as Joh. Jos. Prüm or Egon Müller-Scharzhof.

By the way, Bert Celce’s write-up on Cornas vintner Thierry Allemand, a favorite of mine alongside Gonon in St. Joseph, looks at the terrain of his various sites and the hard work involved farming them. The shot of Allemand’s Reynards, in particular, is reminiscent of Stein’s Palmberg, each tucked in a side valley with steep terraces.

Although no one ever noticed, I realized on my own that I had mistakenly captioned this photo from Tobias on page 27 of our Catalog 2009 as Bremmer Calmont. It’s actually Stein’s revered St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen.

Stairs up one of the many old drywall terraces at Palmberg that need constant upkeep, as in other Lower Mosel vineyards, such as Winninger Röttgen, where the Knebels have some of their best parcels. Yet, much of the Lower Mosel (also known as the Terrassenmosel) have terraced sites, like the Mittelrhein nearby. Sadly, many vineyards in both regions are being left abandoned and bramble grows there instead of vines.

On the Saar, the Lauers saved an old-vine, terraced plot at Schonfels, which slopes precipitously above a high cliff and down towards the river.

Before Flurbereingung (remodeling of vineyards), the Middle Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer had more terraced hillsides than today. Fortunately, several of our winegrowers, including Clemens Busch and Stefan Steinmetz (Weingut Günther Steinmetz), have been instrumental in saving old Riesling vines or re-cultivating steep slate slopes in their respective communes.

As of August 1, 2009, the production of Strohwein (straw wine) in Germany has been allowed according to the new EU wine regulations, but not using the German word. After the German straw wine ban, the Austrians trademarked the term. Ulli Stein, who had been alone in contesting the ban since the autumn of 2001, discussed this point with his lawyer and the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Viticulture, Hendrik Hering. Ulli’s proposal to use the local expression “Striehween,” from the Moselle-Franconian dialect, as a trademark was accepted. Ulli has since patented the name with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA).

In their last and long letter, dated November 16, 2009, the Ministry of Viticulture informed Ulli that his Striehween belongs to a unique category of wine from dried grapes. (In French, the term is vin de paille, most famous in the Jura region.)

According to the law, the Stein brothers cannot label the region (Mosel) or use the terms Erzeugerabfüllung (bottled by the producer) or Weingut (wine estate). At least, the vintage and grape variety are permitted. So, look out for this wonderful specialty next month! It’ll be labeled: “2009er Riesling Striehween, Gebrüder Stein, Bullay/Mosel, Wein aus Deutschland.”

Though he’s one of the wine world’s great talkers, Ulli Stein knows that words alone will not be enough to confront the economic and spiritual crises currently—and urgently—threatening the great traditions of Mosel winemaking (including sites such as Bremmer Calmont, pictured above). Below is a call to action from Ulli, already generating significant response in the region, here translated in full.

Thorns instead of vines!

Alf/Mosel, January 2010

Viticulture on the Mosel has already experienced plenty of crises—and survived! But the ultimate endgame now threatens those old Riesling vines in the greatest steep slate slopes throughout our region.

While on the one hand thousands of euros are spent at wine auctions for a single bottle of Mosel Riesling, and though for many growers who market their own wines all is well, the price for 1000 liters of Riesling (in barrel) now sits at 600 euros. Many part-time winemakers, who have long worked age-old vineyards of extreme steepness and scenic beauty, are finally giving up. The reasons are not only economic but also psychological: if the oft-mentioned “heroic” work in the steepest vineyards not only fails to generate profit but also engenders massive losses, then that signals, in the end, an extremely low regard not only for the work but also for the people engaged in it.

The causes of this unfortunate development are diverse and complex. Mistakes have been made by all involved, including Weinkellereien, winemakers, consultants, and lawmakers. A sampling of what’s gone wrong:

• in the past, too many Weinkellereien (merchant houses/négociants) have placed too little value on quality, have bought and sold junk (as long as the price is low!), and have led the names “Riesling” and “Mosel” into the bargain bins of supermarket shelves, from which they can no longer escape.
• many winemakers have fashioned their wines accordingly, accepted any price, shared their frustrations above all with their children, in word and deed emphatically warning them against the life of a wine grower.
• consultants and lawmakers have fixated single-mindedly on sugar content as the exclusive criteria for quality; propagated the “wrong” varietals (like Kerner); and encouraged questionable winemaking methods (i.e., sweet reserve, de-acidification, etc.)
• and at the end of the day, roughly 90% of all consumers refuse to pay more than 2.99 euros for a bottle of wine, regardless of whether the label indicates Riesling from steep slopes or Pinot Grigio from the Po Valley.

This all sounds rather pessimistic, though sadly with good reason. Half of all vines in my village of St. Aldegund will be grubbed up in the coming months, and in the next two years it will be another quarter. A similar fate awaits the neighboring villages (Alf, Bullay, Neef). Most of those winemakers who are still active are over 60 years old, and for many there is no successor in sight.

Soon the two-thousand-year-old winemaking landscape will cease to exist in many places along the Mosel. Whether the oft-mentioned tourists will still come to gaze upon blackberry bushes remains to be seen.

Despite positive changes on the Mosel, such as rising wine quality among those growers who sell and market their own wines; a slowly increasing number of apprentices; the re-cultivation of vineyards (such as Bremmer Calmont); and such large-scale collaborations as Weingut Kallfelz’s purchase and renovation of the local teaching and research station, viticulture in many sectors is seriously imperiled. Faced in the coming years with the threat of 3000 hectares of soon-to-be-fallow steep sites—one-third of the entire Mosel region—slogans of perseverance (“we have to look to the future, not bemoan what is lost”) will be of as little use as supplication at the feet of the Kellereien. Such approaches obstruct our view of the bitter reality and prevent effective counter-measures, among them the following small and feasible goals:

1. Every estate that directly markets its own wines but that also purchases grapes, must, or wine from colleagues should pay—for Riesling from steep slopes with at least 70° Oechsle—a baseline price of 1200 euros, and for each degree increase in Oecshle an additional 50 euros more. (We’ve been doing this successfully for years with several hectares of steep sites and receive, for a fair price, grapes of corresponding quality.)
2. Every grape-grower who wants to uproot vineyards in steep sites on account of low prices should speak to local winemakers in an effort to achieve better prices. (See Point 1.)
3. Faced with an offer of 60 cents per liter of Riesling, bulk grape-growers should consider simply refusing to sell. Not for that price! Come what may! Hold out! Maintain a measure of self-respect!
4. In-house and intra-estate reorganization (in the case of older winemakers of declining strength) in which lesser sites are relinquished in favor of those steep slopes that define the Mosel landscape and are responsible for the reputation of her wines.
5. The quality of wine produced by those estates that sell and market their own wines must be improved through simple, cost-friendly measures, among them a more selective and—as a rule—later harvest, lower yields, little or no fertilizer, controlled fermentation, etc. At the same time, the value—now also reflected in the glass!—of these steep-slope Rieslings must result in higher prices. There can be no more 3 euro Riesling Spätlese from famed steep sites (like Bremmer Calmont), no more high-quality estates consistently undercutting each other’s prices.
6. Winemakers can and must develop more courage and self-confidence; stand more firmly behind their product; demand from customers an appropriate price for quality; and not tell themselves “I’ll never be able to do that” without ever having tried.
7. Full-time estates should more carefully consider the possibility of taking over certain sites, bearing in mind especially the increased costs of helicopter spraying when, within a given vineyard, only a patchwork of plots remain under cultivation. (Fallow sites need not be sprayed, of course, so the helicopter is continually turning its machine on and off, increasing both the time and cost of the operation, and those costs are shared among vineyard-owners. As a cost-cutting measure, the helicopter service is often dropped, resulting in a further incentive for growers to give up on steep sites.)
8. All winemakers and non-winemakers, including those who rent rooms to tourists, hotel and restaurant proprietors, and other affiliated businesspeople should place more value on the importance of the steep slopes and embrace and communicate that value accordingly.
9. Finally, all involved should treat each other with less envy and spite and instead aim toward solidarity and tolerance.

The preceding sober depiction is not intended to aid and abet resignation, but instead aims to snap people to attention and to serve as a call to action. On the heels of recent notable examples of vineyard rescue must follow more of the same. It is at least worth a try—if not on our own account, at least for the old Riesling vines. They can’t do a thing about it! And they deserve our protection from thorns.

Dr. Ulrich Stein
Winemaker and Oenologist
Alf/Mosel

(Translated by Dan Melia, with assistance from David Schildknecht)

As a play on tobacco packaging health warnings, the Steins have their own message: Stein-Wein warnt: Nichttrinken schadet Ihrer Gesundheit! [Stein-Wine warns: not drinking is bad for your health!]

You’ll have to wait until the Director’s Cut is released on DVD to learn exactly where in the vineyard Ulli’s 87-year-old father maintains his underground stash of Palmberg bottles.

Ulli standing in front of a barrel of 2008 Palmberg trocken. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

In the 2008 vintage, for the first time in several years, Ulli Stein made a legally dry, rather than off-dry, Spätlese from his 40- to 100-year-old vines in Palmberg-Terrassen. Harvested on November 7 and 8, the Steins put the ripe, non-destemmed grape bunches into a crusher followed by a cool 16-hour pre-fermentation maceration. After a gentle pneumatic pressing followed by natural sedimentation in tank, the juice went into two old barrels, where fermentation started spontaneously. The wines were left on their gross lees in Fuder until bottling. For those looking for an analysis, 2008 St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen Spätlese trocken has 96° Oechsle,  12.1% alcohol by volume, 8.6 grams per liter acidity, and 8 grams per liter residual sugar.

Ulli Stein would be the first to admit that vineyards such as the imposing Winninger Uhlen or the renowned Wehlener Sonnenuhr are historically nobler in rank than the unsung St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen. Notwithstanding, he has shown over the years that his beloved Palmberg makes for more expressive wines than many famous sites along the Mosel. Even some more highly touted sites that Ulli works are not without their complications. For instance, the neighboring Bremmer Calmont, the steepest vineyard in Europe, suffers now from a lack of water in hot years—because of climate change, so do many top vineyards—but this remains a relative non-issue for the sheltered, less drought-prone Palmberg-Terrassen. With sufficient water at the top of the slope, Palmberg’s grapes tend to be more vigorous and can hang longer on the vines, so that, even with comparable Oechsle levels, the grapes and resulting wines from Palmberg normally have 2 g/l acidity more than those from Calmont. (In 2008, Ulli decided against bottling his dry Riesling from Calmont as Spätlese even though the grapes were ripe enough to qualify, because he felt the wine lacked the necessary definition and quality for this Prädikat. Unlike the VDP-labeling trend towards Grosses Gewächs and away from the use of Prädikat designations for dry Riesling, Ulli continues to label his top dry wines as “Spätlese trocken.” This, of course, is a topic for another post.)

When traveling down the Lower Mosel to Koblenz, even before reaching the grand single vineyards (Uhlen, Hamm, and Röttgen) of Winningen, many sites seem more striking than Palmberg-Terrassen. Yet once in the idyllic, steep-terraced Palmberg, it becomes apparent how special this site really is. (“Palm” is patois for Buchsbaum, boxwood, a shrub prevalent around the Mediterranean that also grows on this hillside.) Besides the 35- to 90-year-old vines rooted deep in weathered blue and gray slate, this side-valley vineyard is protected from the north and east winds, and, as mentioned earlier, has adequate water from a spring situated above, which supplies even in dry years the greater part of the vineyard with enough water.

After the Second World War, when others ignored its promise, Ulli’s father re-cultivated what had become largely wild terrain. He pruned old vines, planted new ones, repaired drywall terraces, cleared small sections and planted anew, put in fresh wooden stakes, and removed hedges. Over the decades he and Ulli have treated it as a kind of vineyard-garden hybird (at his house, Ulli’s 87-year-old dad has a truly amazing garden), and even now it reflects a gardener’s exacting, loving attention to detail and beauty. In fact, Ulli’s dad has a mini-terraced shrine within Palmberg and, behind a shed nearby, a secret hiding place in the ground to keep bottles of Palmberg readily chilled for drinking. He still consumes a bottle a day at his ripe old age.

Of course, there are so many other unheralded vineyards, jutting up from the Mosel or running along side valleys, including some in the nearby village of Zell, a source we think of only for cheap brand wines like Zeller Schwarze Katz. Zell’s “problem” is that it has lacked a great winemaker to match the potential greatness of its vineyards, the same for the area around Burg, where both the hillside setting and the bridge-crossing further downstream is reminiscent of Wehlen. Who knows this section of the Mosel? Or better yet: which winemaker will have the ambition (and the capital) to attempt to make something special from these sites? Wolfer Goldgrube is as impressive as many an oxbow on the Mosel, and only has regained some of its former acclaim in the last several years because of Daniel Vollenweider’s intensive efforts to rejuvenate both its vines and its reputation. How many so-called Mosel wine experts recognize the name Trarbacher Hühnerberg, now farmed primarily by the traditionalist Martin Müllen? It’s located along the Kautenbach, one of the many tributaries (Saar, Olewiger Bach, Ruwer, and Dhron among others) running through the Hunsrück, and was also a highly-ranked vineyard in the nineteenth century.

All this speaks to the difficulty of trying to classify vineyards. Palmberg-Terrassen, despite being modestly tucked behind the village of St. Aldegund, is in its best sections an ideal spot to grow Riesling. In addition, almost all the vines, which are trained in the traditional manner on wooden stakes, are ungrafted, on average 70 years old, and well-kept on steep, terraced, stony-slate soils. (Click on this winter photo to get a better idea.)

Many of the famous Middle Mosel sites have been restructured (Flurbereinigung) to make them more economical to work and then replanted (usually wire-trained) with clones. Fortunately, there are winegrowers who seek out old vines in steep, often terraced, vineyards that can only be worked by hand with vines trained on wooden stakes. Clemens Busch continues to reclaim some of the best and steepest sites within Pündericher Marienburg, notably in Rothenpfad and Falkenlay. Florian Lauer (Weingut Peter Lauer) has saved a terraced plot of old vines on the top of a cliff in the forgotten Schonfels, and Andreas Adam (Weingut A.J. Adam) has acquired a well-situated, terraced parcel in Goldtröpfchen. Few winegrowers want to work such sites, because it doesn’t pay. The steepest sections of the well-known Saarburger Rausch, those further west and lower down the slope, lie fallow; it is the higher, flatter area that has been renewed and can be worked more easily by tractor.

Since the 1940s, Ulli’s father and later Ulli have only been replanting non-grafted vines from their own cuttings via sélection massale (mass selection)—the old, traditional method. And they didn’t evaluate the grape quality of those vines merely based on their grapes’ sugar levels or plumpness, but rather they propagated those that fulfilled the following criteria (here the sequence in order of importance):

• Small, loose grape bunches with tiny berries of which 20 to 80 percent include millerandage, i.e., plenty of small, seedless berries, with a high skin-to-juice ratio, and a high concentration of acidity, aroma, and sugar.
• Healthy grapes with no stem disease, no fungus, and little rot, when then “noble rot.”
• Yellow to brown berries, with brown spots like freckles.

The old vines were evaluated over many years, before and during the harvest, and correspondingly tagged. Vines that are tagged 22 to 25 times within 25 years have been used for propagation. “This means that our Riesling vines are our own ‘clones,’ namely selected material with, as much as possible, uniform genetic potential, only we have applied entirely different criteria than by the modern Geisenheimer, Neustädter, and other Riesling clones, which were only selected for yield and fruit ripeness,” explained Ulli.

Even if he acquires new plots with dormant old vines, Ulli only replaces them if they no longer yield fruit or are attacked by disease, such as esca, and he does so one at a time, rather than grubbing up an entire section of old vines.

Looking at Palmberg-Terrassen, with its nooks and crannies among the numerous dry-wall terraces on predominantly blue-gray slate, it becomes apparent how complex researching just one singular site can be. For instance, the original Aldegunder Palmberg—no “St.” or “-Terrassen” (terraces) attached to the name back then—was a smaller site and had different boundaries in the past.

Ulli writes, “amongst other things, the 1971 German Wine Law destroyed both the diversity of single vineyards and their historic individuality, cultivated for centuries. The merging of smaller, individual sites into larger vineyards was supposed to simplifiy things for the ‘consumer.’ Instead, it served the Großkellereien [large bulk producers], which could buy more wine from one (persumably more familiar) expanded site and could use the best site names also for flatland vineyards now legally incorporated under that name. Palmberg-Terrassen was similarly enlarged, but included only steep slate slopes and the damage was not nearly as bad as elsewhere.”

Since 1971, St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen incorporates three former place-names:

• Palmberg. The western and main part of the steep slope, south facing. (Certain sections, especially the western edge and highest terraces, have been overgrown with shrubs since the 1960s. )
• Hötlay. The impressive terraced knoll, jutting out east of Palmberg, also south facing.
• Rosenberg. An east-facing climat around the bend. (Ulli doesn’t consider this section to be a part of Palmberg-Terrassen. On the panoramic photo, it cannot be seen and almost 95 percent now lies fallow.)

Formerly, the three sites totaled around 20 hectares (49.4 acres), only 4 hectares (!) of which are now planted with vines. Of these 4 hectares, 1 hectare is in the “original” Palmberg and 3 hectares in Hötlay. The Steins have sole ownership (a quasi monopole) of the original Palmberg and own 0.3 hectares and rent another 0.5 hectares in the former Hötlay, meaning that their 1.8 total hectares represent 45% ownership of the post-1971 Palmberg-Terrassen.

Ulli Stein in his cellar in the village of Bullay. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

This might look and feel like a repeat of the last post, but it’s not. Even the photo of Ulli Stein before his 30-hl barrel is different. Anyway, the weather here has been just fantastic over the last couple of weeks with plenty of sunshine and cool weather. The main Riesling harvest has been underway.

Ulli explained:

Until the beginning of this week (with the exception of Himmelreich), we were still in pre-selection mode and harvested very good quality, amongst others Blauschiefer with 85° Oechsle and 9.3 g/l acidity—ideal. In Himmelreich, we purposely picked Kabinett and thereby picked once again an elegant “light style” by a combination of two harvest dates (October 14 and 21) with 80° and 86° Oechsle and 9.8 and 9.0 g/l acidity, respectively. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we harvested in Hölle and Klosterkammer wonderful grapes with 98° and 100° Oechsle and 9.5 and 9.0 g/l acidity, respectively. With Pinot Noir, we were finished by Oct. 15, totally healthy and 102° Oechsle. At the moment I am paying close attention to the acidity and will plan the rest of the harvest according to that. In Calmont, we’re done, an elegant Qualitätswein with 88° and a Spätlese with 97° Oechsle, but only 8.2 g/l acidity. We’ll have to give the latter a little Palmberg for support. The grapes are unbelievable and still hanging in Palmberg after the pre-selection: golden-yellow, healthy with a little noble rot, physiologically ripe and with a still racy acidity of 9.0 to 9.5 g/l. In Himmelreich, half the grapes of a similar quality are still hanging for vin de paille. In this year, Palmberg shows, for example, in comparison to Calmont or [Neefer] Frauenberg its absolute singularity and superiority—the old vines dig deep and have from the water source above [the vineyard] no water stress. In Calmont and Frauenberg, it was once again too dry. All in all, it’s been a grandiose autumn, and I’ll proceed in the cellar accordingly.

Ulli Stein in his cellar. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

After having beautiful autumn weather in September and early October, the last few days have been rainy here in Trier. Although today it warmed up some with no rain. The main Riesling harvest has yet to begin. Most grapes will be picked over the next several weeks, however.

At Weingut Stein, Ulli wrote:

As late as yesterday [Sunday] the weather was fantastic, and the grapes ripened accordingly. Last week we did a complete pre-selection [a first passage through certain single vineyards] of Riesling grape bunches in Hölle, Klosterkammer, and Himmelreich. (Everything that was not optimal was cut from the vines.) Must weights were between 82° and 85° Oechsle. The grapes taste really good and will go in our table wine or in Blauschiefer. On Saturday, we picked the first Pinot Noir in Himmelreich with a good physiological ripeness and 102° Oechsle. Unfortunately, it’s supposed to rain in the next three days, still not a disaster, but increased risks of rot. We have to keep—and that is already foreseeable—a watchful eye on the acidity. Until now the grape ripening is similar to 2007, but it can quickly go in the direction of 2006  [i.e., with high levels of botrytis]. We’re going to harvest Pinot Noir in the coming weeks and then in Himmelreich and Palmberg those physiologically ripe and crisp Riesling grapes that don’t have Oechsle levels too high for the racy and lean Kabinett trocken and feinherb. All in all, I’m still very pleased and also optimistic.

Please note the following MWM tasting events, if you happen to be in NYC:

On Saturday, October 10, from 4 to 7pm, my colleague, Dan Melia, will be pouring 10 of our selections at Chambers Street Wines.

On the following Thursday, October 15, from 5:30 to 7:30pm, Crush Wine & Spirits will be hosting a big 2008 German Vintage Tasting, which includes a line-up of 27 wines, including nine from our portfolio. Join Dan as he pours our selections alongside other top wines from Germany.

Rows of vines at St. Aldegunder Himmelreich. Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

Ulli Stein has purchased as well as rented an additional 0.25 hectares (0.62 acres) in St. Aldegunder Himmelreich. Weingut Stein now has a total of 0.5 hectares (1.24 acres) here. When we talked earlier this week, he was putting in new wooden stakes and pruning the vines in these plots. His holdings cover the entire (pre-1971 German Wine Law) Himmelreich, quasi a monopole. The terraced site has a stony blue-slate soil with an easterly exposition. The nearby damn creates a warmer micro climate, and the vineyard gets the sun early in the day that helps dry the morning dew and keep the grapes healthy and free from rot. All the vines in the original Himmelreich are ungrafted, averaging 70 years old. His core plot has over 100-year-old vines, the oldest in St. Aldegund. Since 1971, Himmelreich also incorporates the neighboring old place-name called Lay.

One of Ulli’s newly acquired parcels was planted with clones, but the former owner was unhappy with the results and ripped them out back in the 1950s for non-grafted vines (i.e., on original European rootstock). Ulli said the ungrafted vines develop physiological ripeness at lower must weights than clones would at a similar ripeness level. He likes to make from Himmelreich a delicate Kabinett trocken or feinherb and the rest goes into his Estate wine called Blauschiefer (blue slate). The majority of his Pinot Noir vines are planted in the aforementioned Lay, further upstream.

Both the 2008 Palmberg Spätlese and Himmelreich Kabinett will be under 9 grams per liter residual sugar (RS), hence officially dry. He recently racked the two Fuder of Himmelreich Kabinett from the lees and the analysis showed 9.7% alcohol by volume, 6 g/l RS, and 8.3 g/l acidity—a dry-fermented Mosel Riesling under 10% alcohol!

Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

A trail winds mid slope in the steep Palmberg-Terrassen behind the village of St. Aldegund. The old ungrafted vines are trained in the traditional manner on wooden stakes. The 2008 St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen Riesling Spätlese trocken is still fermenting in two old barrels. Meanwhile, you can taste Stein’s 2007 feinherb edition.

Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

Ulli Stein standing at his beloved St. Aldegunder Palmberg-Terrassen. The name of this steep-terraced site with gray and blue slate comes from the boxwood plant that is prevalent in the Mediterranean, but also grows on this hill. “Palm” is patois for Buchsbaum (boxwood), not palm tree. See Joe Salamone’s write-up on Ulli and his favorite site.

Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

A Fuder of 2008 St. Aldegunder Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett trocken at Weingut Stein. This wine comes from non-grafted old vines in the original plot of Himmelreich in St. Aldegund and ferments spontaneously on its lees.

Photograph by Tobias Hannemann.

On a wintry Saturday afternoon Ulli, Tobias, Sebastian, and I hiked up Bremmer Calmont, one of the steepest vineyards in Europe.