Stein - Cabernet Sauvignon "vom Berg" 2022

It’s popular amongst artists to justify their art by the expression “It speaks for itself’. However, that doesn’t quite hold for the existence of Cabernet Sauvignon planted in the impossibly steep slopes of a grand cru site in the Mosel. This deserves an explanation.

Dr. Ulrich Stein, call him Ulli, is a staunch traditionalist—firmly committed to ungrafted old vines and steep slope viticulture—yet with a penchant towards the absurd and iconoclastic. Something like soulful audacity.

In a response to the longstanding Mosel ban on growing red grapes, Ulli planted some Pinot Noir in the 80’s to test the limits of the law. When he was found out by the local inspector, he feigned insanity much like King David—claiming the miraculous transformation of Riesling vines overnight.

In the decades since what was once a bit of a private joke to irk overbearing bureaucrats has turned into a striking wine and a firm notice that the wine world is not the same as it was. Climate change is here and this region that once could barely ripen these grapes is now putting out a wine of substance to rival the great mountain Cabernets of old school California.

Blueberry, blackberry, mint, herbal, full-bodied, tannic.

It can take a little insanity to work in a world that has gone mad.

Type: Red
Producer: Stein
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: Germany
Region: Lower Mosel
Farming: Working Organic, No copper sulphate