Weingut Gunther Steinmetz

In the village of Brauneberg, on some of Germany’s steepest vineyard slopes, lies a family-run winery which, even before the First World War, was quietly and steadily producing high-quality Riesling. The Günther Steinmetz Winery (Weingut Günther Steinmetz) is not as well known as some of its neighbours along the Mosel, but for over a century it has been producing wines whose quality far exceeds the winery’s modest size, drawing on several vineyards whose history dates back to Roman times.

History

The estate’s history began in 1900, and today it is run by the fifth generation of the same family. Wilhelm Steinmetz, who ran the estate in the 1920s, held several jobs: butcher, innkeeper, farmer and winegrower, which was typical for rural families on the Moselle at a time when winemaking alone was rarely enough to make a living. His son, Günter Steinmetz, whose name still adorns every bottle, took over the management in 1957 at the age of just 17 and spent decades shaping the style of wine that the estate continues to produce to this day. According to some sources, he was also one of the first winemakers in Braunberg to begin bottling and selling wine under his own family name, rather than through a cooperative.

Günter’s son, Stefan, took over the winery in 1999 at the age of 21, raising the quality of the estate’s produce whilst remaining true to tradition: he introduced new knowledge and technological processes, whilst keeping the old vineyards at the centre of attention. Since 2014, the winery has been jointly managed by Stefan and his wife Sammy, whilst their three children are growing up surrounded by the same cellars and slopes.

Vineyards

The estate cultivates around 12 hectares of steep, predominantly south-facing slopes in Browneberg and the surrounding area; in places, the gradients reach 80 per cent, so steep that the use of machinery is out of the question, and every vine must be tended by hand.

Its flagship plot is the ‘Brauneberger Juffer’, a slope covering around 31 hectares, the central part of which (‘Juffer Sonnenur’), spanning 10 hectares, surrounds an ancient sundial that was once used to track the sun’s path across the vineyards. In addition to the Brauneberger, the family also owns plots in other renowned historic vineyards stretching along the Moselle and its side valleys, including the Kestener Paulinshofberg, the Piesport Goldtröpfchen, the Wintricher Gaiserslay and the Oligsberg, Mühlheimer Sonnenlay, Weldenzer Grafschafter Sonnenberg and Droner Hofberg.

Terroir

The slope of the Braunberger Juffer consists of blue-grey Devonian slate, mixed in places with sand and gravel, and has a long history of producing exceptional Riesling. According to legend, Thomas Jefferson admired this site; Napoleon counted it amongst the finest plots on the Moselle; and the name itself dates back to around 1790, when this slope was tended by the three unmarried daughters, or ‘Juffern’, of a local chamberlain. Braunberg is situated in an exceptionally warm corner of the valley — so warm, in fact, that in August 1998, a weather station installed at the ‘Juffer’ vineyard recorded the highest daily temperature ever recorded in Germany: 41.2 degrees Celsius.

The other plots also have their own history. The Kestener Paulinershofberg is situated on silvery-grey shale and takes its name from St Paulina, a Trier monastery to which the Frankish king donated vineyards in 936. ‘Piesporter Goldtropfen’, also situated on weathered grey shale, was planted by the Romans as far back as the 4th century and later, in 777, donated to a Benedictine abbey, making it one of the oldest documented vineyards on the riverbank. ‘Wintricher Geyerslai’ is situated on purple slate with a high quartzite and iron content and once belonged to a family who built their own mill to grind the slate into powder, which they then returned to the hillside as a mineral fertiliser. ‘Droner Hofberg’, situated on grey-brown mixed slate, was already noted in the 19th century as one of the finest plots during surveys of the region’s vineyards.

Grape varieties

Riesling is the main variety here, as it is across most of the Mosel region; it is prized for conveying the character of each individual slate slope into the glass. Alongside it, Steinmetz also cultivates Pinot Noir, a variety believed to be around 2,000 years old, as well as small quantities of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier and Merlot.

Winemaking

The vineyard preserves old, often ungrafted Riesling vines; no fertilisers, herbicides or insecticides are used in the vineyard – instead, the focus is on controlled low yields and an individual approach to each vine. All the grapes are harvested and sorted by hand, and then handled with care to avoid mechanical damage to the berries.

An equally minimalist approach is taken in the cellar: no yeast, fining agents, acidity adjustment, de-acidification or animal-derived products are added, and every wine, without exception, is fermented spontaneously in large wooden barrels or steel tanks.

Wines

The range varies from dry and semi-dry Rieslings to traditional ‘Prädikat’ wines, such as ‘Kabinett’, and also includes Pinot Noir and a small quantity of sparkling wine.

The ‘Brauneberger Juffer’ wines are the estate’s flagship; they are prized for their balance of acidity and fruit notes, as well as for their reputation as wines that age well over many years, a quality to which the family has staked its name since the days of Günter Steinmetz.

Wines made from the ‘Drohner Hofberg’ and ‘Piesporter Goldtropfen’ have also attracted the attention of critics and merchants, including recognition from renowned wine critics, reflecting the same approach, based on minimal intervention and respect for the terroir, that characterises the entire collection.