Weingut am Stein

The Free Bacchus Story

Sandra and Ludwig Knoll run the estate on the edge of Würzburg, among the vines of the Würzburger Stein, the vineyard you can see from almost anywhere in the city. Their daughter Antonia and her partner Marius already work there, and their son Vincenz is studying viticulture. Ludwig’s grandfather was a cooper who also distilled, and the estate still makes fruit brandies in his honour.

Franken is Silvaner country, and Ludwig Knoll calls it his favourite grape as well as the region’s leading one. Silvaner is a quieter white than Riesling, and Franken’s shell limestone gives it its grip. Half the estate’s vineyards are on slopes of 35 to 80 per cent, which have to be worked by hand. The best of them is the Stettener Stein, a steep amphitheatre of rows above the river Main on thick limestone banks, where the family’s Silvaner, Weissburgunder and Scheurebe vines are 50 to 80 years old.

The estate went organic in 2006 and biodynamic in 2008, across all of it. In the cellar every wine gets the vessel it suits best, from steel tanks to concrete eggs, amphorae and old Franconian oak. respekt-BIODYN, the association of central European growers that certifies biodynamic farming, lists the Knolls among its members, and the EU organic register lists the estate for its grapes and its wine.