Ulli Stein - An unforgettable man from an unforgettable place
11/7/25 -
Ulli Stein, in my opinion, is hands downs one of the most important figures in the Mosel wine region. I write this in consideration not of its past, but its future. There are big names that I remember from the early 2000s when Chambers Street Wines was still in its first decade. JJ Prum, Egon-Müller, Willi-Schaefer... I can spot these labels from a mile away, and the vintage bottles we would occasionally acquire would disappear in a heartbeat. That said, the American predilection for Riesling has changed greatly in the last 20 years, and the older collectors are drinking less! Younger drinkers often have unexplainable aversions to Riesling and tend to like Trocken and Fienherb expressions when they ask for Riesling specifically. Let's not even get started about young German drinkers! The fate of an enchanting and historic wine region is, for better or worse, in the hands of a very small community of wine lovers (many of whom are in the US) who share a fascination with and unwavering passion for Mosel Riesling. If we are the fire, Ulli Stein is the fuel. He stands with one foot planted firmly in the past, with a deep understanding of the history and significance of the region, and one foot swinging forward, bounding proudly towards seemingly insurmountable odds. I have written more thoughts, in a bit of a free-form fashion, which you can find below, but let's first focus on the important task of selling, buying and (sooner or later) drinking some 2024 Rieslings from Ulli Stein!
Today, we offer new arrivals and returning favorites from Ulli Stein, all from the spectacular, albeit limited, 2024 vintage:
Blauschiefer Riesling Trocken - From two hillsides on blue slate, Ulli says "he's not friendly, he's spicy!" With notes of salty minerals and lemon pith, and less than 4g/l RS (barely enough to balance with the searing acidity), this is an electric, dry Riesling.
Weihwasser Riesling Feinherb - A pre-selection (or first pass) of his best vineyards, Ulli picks grapes at the edge of the vineyards for this wine, not because quality is poor but because birds usually eat the grapes before he can pick them. Ulli will assure you that these are still very good grapes, though they are not the very best. The style is ever-so-slightly off-dry with white flowers and pear on the nose, and of wet rocks and stone fruit on the palate.
Klosterkammer Riesling Kabinett Trocken - Frost hit in April and killed 50% of the leaves at this site, along with many of the berries. The grapes had a very low Oechsle level but exceptionally good taste, says Ulli, and the resulting wine was a a totally dry Riesling (<1g/l RS).
Palmberg Riesling Kabinett Trocken - 60-65 year-old vines and 90-95 year-old ungrafted vines contribute to this fantastic Riesling that is still quite young, but already expressing lovely delicacy and fruit in the mid-palate.
Himmelreich Riesling Kabinett Feinherb - Different exposure here. The blue slate gives a more charming wine, says Ulli. He calls it a classic Kabinett hillside, with more blue slate and a small percentage of grey slate. 14g/l RS. Ulli says that Palmberg is usually better for stronger and drier wines, while Himmelreich is better for sweet, with average age of vines being 5-10 years older than Palmberg.
Alfer Hölle "1900" Riesling Kabinett Trocken - The Alfer Hölle Riesling 1900 comes from a small parcel of about 1000 vines planted in 1900 and thought to be the second oldest vines in the Mosel. Year after year this wine startles us with its combination of soaring aromatics, old vine concentration, and seeming weightlessness. A truly magical wine from a special place.
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Ulli Stein is clearly extremely intelligent but also reminds me of an eccentric uncle or Grandpa. His knoweldge of soil science, chemical processes, fermentation, is precise and purely scientific... rigorous even. But he also speaks about his vineyards as if they are little childhood friends of his, often creating cute high-pitched voices for his vines, which in a difficult vintage told him "I'm sorry Ulli, I have no grapes to give you this year, I'm very thirsty and tired!"
He is a mentor and in an area quite different than the Loire Valley (a region I have spent a lot of time in), where winemakers are often found hanging out, constantly organizing parties, mini-salons, and "portes-ouvertes." The Mosel in contrast is a region that is a bit more stuffy. Partly, people are so busy with the extremely painstaking labor that they are tired and do not have much of a social life, partly it's just rural Germany, where the social customs are not quite the same. Ulli, as much as he might seem like an eccentric and a poet, is a magnet. He brings producers together. During this, my first ever trip with Vom Boden in late June, a symposium on the future of the Mosel and a large tasting were organized at Haus Waldfrieden, Ulli's home (and also a hotel) that was built in the late 19th century at the top of the Hölle vineyard. Producers came from all around. Some were young, either new to the area like Philippe Lardot and Rosalie Curtin (or their friends from the United States who had been living and working vineyards with Ulli for over a year), others recently took over their family estates and were excited to meet Americans and introduce their wines. There were also producers from long-established estates, friends of Ulli and old friends of Chambers Street, like Gernot from Immich-Batterieberg, Florian Lauer, Alexandra Künstler and Konstantin Weiser from Weiser-Kunstler (and though Clemens Busch couldn't attend, one of his sons was there!).
Ulli brings people together who might otherwise never see each other, in the spirit of discourse, music, wine and comradery. To me, he is the most important person in this conversation about the survival of the Mosel. He connects with young people, as he is incredibly young at heart. He can explain the challenges with humor yet be fully serious and meticulously detailed at the same time. He is a teacher, a friend, and an eccentric, someone who it seems everyone in the area at least respects if not loves and admires.
He has hope, which is truly in short supply in an area where historic, UNESCO sites are being deserted due to the challenging work conditions, shrinking international market for the wines, and inability to find labor let alone afford to pay for it. I will say, after spending a few days with him, I started to develop a love for the place and a yearning to protect it. Not just a desire to promote the wines, this was in fact a strange itch to move to the Mosel, find a home and save a vineyard and be a little part of this rag-tag group of slightly crazy grower/producers who are truly the only ones left on these insanely steep slopes that speckle the Mosel wine region. I will forever remember my time visiting Ulli and learning from him. Thank you Ulli!
Words from Stephen Bitterolf, founder of Vom Boden wines:
So we've had nearly 50 vintages now from Dr. Ulrich "Ulli" Stein and as I myself age, I think: Goddamn every vintage is a tiny blessing.
This is a bit of a nonsequitur, but this summer Ulli and I sat late into the night one evening at Haus Waldfrieden. We were talking about his own aging, the limits of a body in its 70s in the steep vineyards, the elusive idea of retirement... and he sat there, looking over the valley of the Mosel, distant.
But then he looked over at me, leaned in and said, almost as if just to make the words physical - I could tell he had been thinking about this for a while: "Stephen I do not know why; but I think I will make the best wines of my life in the next few years."
There was no further discussion really. It was just a feeling he had.
But so it is that, again, in 2024 (as he did in 2023) Stein has nailed it. This is a fiercely classic 2024 vintage at Stein - a vintage that maxes out at the Kabinett level. But this is the apogee of what Kabinetts can be - from Stein at least every bit the masterpieces that the 2021ers are.
The options are dazzling in quality, limited in quantity. I'll leave you with what I wrote last year, which feels more true now.
"These are, to my mind, some of the best-of-the-best in the Mosel, from unquestionably one of the greatest winemakers of the post-war period and at $500 a bottle I would tell you, 'sell your damn car.' Ulli, however, upon hearing me say something like that, would lean over with a smile on his face and slap me on the side of the head. 'I would never - never, ever - sell a wine for that price. It is too much.' And he's absolutely right, and so we have these true trophies, profound expressions of a vanishing culture at semi-reasonable prices. Do what I did not do in my youth: Buy absolutely as much as you can afford. There will be a day when the money will mean nothing and having the wines will mean everything. I'm writing this as much for me as for you."
The lineup below is, I think, at this point fairly well understood. The Himmelreich I'd say is surprisingly approachable. The Palmberg and 1900s are quite stern; stunning, but stern.
The Klosterkammer is a site that is normally used for sparklings and the "Ohnes" - but this year the frosts destroyed about 75% of the harvest here but the small amount remaining was perfectly ripe, just a touch above Kabinett ripeness level and he couldn't resist. Not since 2011, I think, has Stein made a Kabinett Trocken under 10% ABV - I think this is between 9-9.5% (though it says 10% on the label), with around 9 grams of acid and less than 1 gram of RS. This is brutal; pristine, but very severe. Experts only please: Honestly most normal humans will just not understand this wine. And that's ok.
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Historic info on the producer from the Wines of Germany website:
"The Stein family began cultivating wine in the Mosel region of Germany in the 16th century, back when wine growers typically practiced their professions only part-time. Heinrich and Erna Stein were the first in the family to dedicate themselves to winegrowing as a full-time occupation. In 1948, they founded Weingut Stein, where Heinrich focused on producing high quality wines. His sons Ulrich and Peter took over the business in 1982, consistently refining their father’s experimental approach and pushing the boundaries of winemaking in the region. Ulrich Stein, or “Ulli,” graduated with an oenology degree from the prestigious University of Geisenheim, completed his PhD studies in biology, and went on to dedicate his life to producing high-quality Mosel wines from ancient vines planted on laboriously steep slopes.
Ulli saw tending and reviving old vines in the Mosel region as crucial to upholding the traditional viticultural practices of the region and necessary to preserving the region’s winemaking future. In his view, climate change and rising temperatures meant that white grapes along the riverbank and at the lower third of the region’s slopes ripen too fast, endangering classic wines that are dependent on cold weather like Eiswein and low-alcohol Feinherb and Kabinett bottlings. He found that the region’s old vines better adapted to the effects of climate change, as their deep root systems handled drought and heavy rainfall better and had fewer problems with botrytis. Hence Ulli’s advocacy efforts for the preservation of the vines on the iconic steep slopes.
Additionally, as rising temperatures make for an increasingly inhospitable environment, Ulli fought to gain permission to plant non-native red grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Mosel. Along with some other wineries, his persistent efforts to revive Spätburgunder and other red grapes led to the region’s repeal of the ban on red-wine production in 1986, which had been in effect since 1933! In this way, Ulli is both protecting the past and the future of the Mosel."
-Wines of Germany
