Weingut Emrich-Schönleber

We, the Schönleber family, are the people behind Emrich-Schönleber wines. We work together with the aim of meeting and, wherever possible, exceeding the high standards expected of our wines each and every year.

It goes without saying that our intensive, meticulous approach begins in the vineyard. With more than 40 years of professional experience, Werner Schönleber ensures that our vines are nurtured in the best way possible. He has a keen instinct for when and how best to carry out the tasks that are necessary. This is important, because every year brings new challenges. There is no one recipe for success.

Frank Schönleber is also a frequent presence in the vineyard during the growing season. However, his attention switches to the cellar once picking gets underway. It is there that he follows each wine attentively from the vine to bottle. Frank Schönleber has an innate understanding of his wines – because they are part of his daily life.

Above all, it is Hanne Schönleber who takes care of our customers. She knows our clientele and their needs better than anyone.

Anja Schönleber assists her mother-in-law in the winery office. Other than that, she performs the family's most important duty – of being a parent. Daughter Amelie has already taken a liking to grapes.

HISTORY

Mid-18th century – The first mention of winegrowing in our family dates back to the mid-18th century in the form of wills pertaining to the Emrichs (our ancestors).

1815 – "This time people were boasting of one of their local wines, called 'Monzinger'," noted Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1815. "They say it runs down the throat with such ease and pleasure, that you only realise its bewildering effect too late. The temptation to taste it and to measure ourselves with it was too great to resist." (St Rochus Festival, Bingen).

1834 – "The meagre conditions on the Monzinger hill seem, in themselves, to be the cause of the good reputation of the wines, which are, as a result, so high in price and among the best in the Nahe region," wrote Johann Philipp Bronner in 1834 (Viniculture in the Provinces of Rheinhessen, the Nahe Valley and the Mosel Valley).

1960s – Until the 1960s, our estate was a mixed operation comprising agriculture, livestock and winegrowing. This form of diversification was common practice at a time when the risk of bad grape harvests (due to spring frosts, poor flowering, fungal diseases, etc.) was still very high. Only the most affluent families (often from industrialist backgrounds) could afford to grow wine and nothing else.

1965-1985 – From 1965 to 1985, Wilhelm Schönleber (a native Swabian from southern Germany), followed by son Werner Schönleber, turned the property into a purely winegrowing estate, expanding the vineyard area from approximately 2 to 10 hectares.

1991 – With an increasing share of vineyard space devoted to Riesling and a continually improving portfolio of vineyard sites, our estate first made it onto the list of "Germany's top 100 wineries" (according to DM magazine) under Werner Schönleber's stewardship in 1991.

1994 – In 1994, our estate became a member of the VDP, the world's oldest association of elite wine estates.

Today – Today we farm 20 hectares of vineyard. Riesling currently accounts for 85% of our vines, supplemented by Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Weissburgunder (Pinot Blanc). Werner and Frank Schönleber have worked their way to the top of their profession. Germany's leading wine guides unanimously rate Weingut Emrich-Schönleber as a world-class winery.

We hold Monzingen's vineyards in high esteem and have invested much time and effort over the last 40 years here in our village into maintaining and, above all, recultivating steep and once highly regarded vineyard plots, for which we now have much reason to be thankful.

We humans are an essential component of terroir. It is up to us to nurture both soil and vine. We are very careful to ensure that these two elements are healthy and in mutual balance - that is, most importantly, that the yield of the vines is in harmony with the water and nutrients available in the soil. We tend assiduously to each individual vine by hand. In doing so, we can control yields and ensure that the foliage on each vine is always well aerated. This allows the grapes to remain healthy for longer and to be picked late in the harvest at optimum ripeness. Only the minimum of nutrients are drawn from the soil. Except for the juice in the grapes, we ultimately return all the natural goodness back into the vineyard where it belongs. We generally fertilise with good-quality, home-made compost where necessary.

Monzingen is located on the western fringes of the Nahe winegrowing area. Its vineyards are 160 to 250 metres above sea level. The extensive Soonwald forest is situated a few kilometres away to the north. Ours is a relatively cool climate for winegrowing, where sites with abundant sunshine, optimum slope exposure, stony soils and warm microclimates offer the best chance for high-quality wine. With the appropriate know-how, and when the right factors come together, we have good prospects of producing singular wines that are worthy of the highest international recognition.

Our top vineyards Halenberg and Frühlingsplätzchen meet these prerequisites. Featuring steep south to southwest-facing inclines of up to 70%, these two sites are grateful recipients of Monzingen's 1,900 average hours of sunshine per year.

Our vines grow on stony soils that are typical of the slate-rich Wadern geological formation ("Waderner Schichten"). Here the grapes are normally much smaller than would otherwise be the case, and consequently all the more aromatic.

Strong thermal winds blow through our best plots - warm air currents that rise from the valley on sunny days and further increase the temperature in the vineyard. Falcons and buzzards like to ride these thermals and can often be seen circling effortlessly in the sky above. In turn, the nearby Soonwald forest provides a natural source of cooling air during the night. As our best vineyard blocks are not directly exposed to these cold drafts of nocturnal air, they are able to cool down more slowly. This is ideal for optimum aroma development in our grapes.

GRAND CRUS

Since 1997, we have made a conscious decision to apply the single-vineyard specification only to Rieslings from our best classified sites - plots that were denoted in the 1901 Prussian tax map as being of particularly high value, and which continue to produce excellent wines to this day.

If you drink one of our single-vineyard wines, you can therefore be sure that what you have in your glass has been grown in one of the best vineyards in the Nahe region and speaks clearly of its origins. The grapes will also have been selectively hand-picked and the wine will have passed an internal blind-tasting assessment by the regional VDP association for the Nahe, underscoring its high quality and individual personality.

Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen – The Frühlingsplätzchen vineyard has a southwest-to-southeast exposure. At its steepest point, it has a 70% incline. It is little wonder therefore that the winter snows melt the fastest and that spring awakens particularly early in this vineyard. Its soils mostly consist of red slate and gravel, frequently interspersed with the red-coloured loam referred to as Rotliegend. Even at a young age, Frühlingsplätzchen will seduce you with its playful, spring-like fruit character. Its aromas are often redolent of peach and ripe apple, while fine herbal notes also tend to emerge. A few years of cellaring will lend a more pronounced minerally quality that makes Frühlingsplätzchen wines increasingly electrifying with age.

Monzinger Halenberg – Monzingen's smallest vineyard is planted exclusively with Riesling vines, most of which belong to us. Facing south with gradients of up to 70%, Halenberg has stony blue slate and quartzite soils that put our vines through their paces - making them struggle in the summer for every drop of water. As a result, the grapes in this vineyard stay smaller and develop an especially exquisite aroma. Halenberg has an inherent, finely structured, minerally saltiness. It often reveals aromas reminiscent of ripe grapefruit and other exotic fruits. After a little ageing, it takes on its characteristically spicy, herbal personality.

Monzinger Auf der Ley – This vineyard plot is situated above Halenberg. Gravel is the dominating feature of its soil, in addition to slate. The average incline is 50%. Strong thermals mean that the vineyard is very warm despite its lofty perch.

Wines from this site have cool, stony characteristics. Auf der Ley is our most austere wine – but it also has the strongest personality. To a certain extent, it marries the finesse and elegance of Frühlingsplätzchen with the minerally intensity of Halenberg. Only after a number of years does it begin to show its true stature.

There are millions of well-made but unremarkable wines the world over. On the other hand, a great many "show wines" are also produced around the globe - wines that often excite at first sip but are rarely pleasurable to drink over a second glass. We aspire to neither of these types of wine. Our philosophy is different. We are committed to three basic fundamentals:

1. fundamental: Schönleber wines offer true drinking pleasure.

2. fundamental: Schönleber wines are honest, authentic, unembellished expressions of their origin.

3. fundamental: Schönleber single-vineyard wines always have distinctive personalities. We don't just want to produce "good" wine.

These three essentials instruct us - we the Schönleber family and our entire team - in everything we do. They are central to all the work we do in the vineyard - from planting the vines onwards. Each work process that we undertake is carefully thought out.

This approach holds true in the cellar, where our philosophy affords the necessary scope for our wines to develop naturally. In terms of the process from grape to wine, every cask or tank is different.

From the flowering of the vine to bottling in the cellar, each wine has a unique story to tell - and each has a unique personality. And that is how it should be.