Weingut Rings

Weingut Rings - It all began with the parental mixed farm

The history of the Rings Winery goes back to 1960, when it was founded by Friedrich Weinsheimer in Freinsheim. From 1976 on, daughter Traudel took over the business together with her husband Willi, produced bulk wines and also planted fruit. Up to this point, the history is still quite unspectacular. The meteoric rise of the Rings wine estate started when the next generation took over the business: Andi and Steffen Rings. 

• 2001 - Steffen presses his first own wine. He laid the foundation for his own wines back in the mid-90s when he planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
• 2007 - Andi completes his apprenticeship with Daniel Wagner (Wagner-Stempel Winery) in Siefersheim and joins the family business. 
• 2008 - Andi and Steffen take over the joint management of the Rings winery. Special focus is put on Riesling, the wines are spontaneously fermented, the cellar is expanded (investment in stainless steel and wooden barrels).
• 2010 - Andi and Steffen discover a fallow, abandoned parcel in the Berntal nature reserve, exposed to the south, on limestone cliffs. They buy the parcel, which from now on is in their sole possession, rehabilitate and cultivate it. They plant Pinot Noir from Burgundy here. The Felsenberg vineyard has meanwhile become a VDP.GROSSES GEWÄCHS.
• 2015 - The Rings winery becomes a member of the VDP and also receives the 4th grape in the Gault Millau wine guide. Further plots in the limestone-rich Leistadt are added. The winery in the Dürkheimer Hohl finally becomes too small.
• 2017 - Groundbreaking ceremony for the new winery in the Freinsheim site "Schwarzes Kreuz".
• 2018 - The new winery is completed, around 70% of the building complex is underground. Thus, natural cooling is used, the cellar has a consistent temperature of 12-14 °C. A photovoltaic system was installed on the roof of the Rings wine press house. In addition, the "green roof", which is made of the renewable raw material wood, stores precipitation. The evaporation of the precipitation water contributes to building cooling, air humidification and fine dust filtering. To irrigate the green areas of the Rings vineyard, three large rainwater cisterns have been sunk into the ground in front of the manor house, which can hold 60,000 litres of rainwater.

The work in the vineyard at the Rings Estate

The family cultivates their vineyards ecologically because they are convinced that great wines can only thrive from naturally healthy soil. Artificial fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are completely avoided, the vineyards are planted with greenery, buckwheat, vetches, mallow, alfalfa and clover grow between the rows of vines. These plants bind nitrogen from the air and thus add nutrients to the soil. Rape and oil radish provide good aeration. To protect the vines from fungal attack, copper and sulphur are applied in controlled, small quantities. Weed control is purely mechanical. Pheromones in the vineyards ensure that grape berry moths stay away from the vines. The soils of the Rings winery are fertilized with the estate's own compost. Due to very dense stocking in the vineyard, the yield is reduced naturally and so this does not have to be done labour-intensively by hand.

The grape varieties of the Rings estate

The most important white grape varieties of the Rings winery are:

• Riesling
• Chardonnay
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Pinot Blanc
• Pinot Gris

Among the red vines are mainly:

• Pinot Noir
• Syrah
• Cabernet Sauvignon

The vinification

The Rings estate produces almost exclusively dry wines. The basis, of course, lies in the work in the vineyard. Already here the grapes are sorted during the harvest, accordingly the harvest is exclusively done by hand. A second sorting takes place in the cellar at the sorting table. The musts are fermented spontaneously with wild yeasts. Some of the Rings wines are aged in wooden barrels, some whites in large, neutral half-barrels or piece barrels, some in stainless steel. The red wines are aged in small oak barrels. Bottling is unfiltered.

The vineyards of Weingut Rings

If you visit the Palatinate town of Freinsheim at the northern end of the Mittelhardt, near Deidesheim, you will also find the Rings Winery. The family's vineyards are partly situated on a primeval limestone reef behind Kallstadt, which used to be a limestone quarry.

The climate of the villages of Saumagen, Steinacker and Kalkofen is characterized by the Palatinate Forest, the soils of limestone and limestone marl. Ungstein is somewhat warmer, the soils are stronger, with loess/loam layers and red sandstone. A special feature here is the red earth - terra rossa. The warmest location is Freinsheim, with soils of sand and gravel.

The Rings sites

• Weilberg - VDP.GROSSE LAGE: Soils of ferruginous loam (red earth)
• Reiterpfad Achtmorgen - VDP.GROSSE LAGE: dry, barren, almost Mediterranean, stony-sandy red sandstone weathering, interspersed with limestone marl
• Saumagen - VDP.GROSSE LAGE: soils of limestone marl, intermixed with limestones
• Felsenberg - VDP.GROSSE LAGE: enclosed by limestone walls, soils of tertiary limestone
• Ungsteiner Nussriegel - VDP.ERSTE LAGE: soils of clayey loam and red sandstone
• Leistadter Kalkofen - VDP.ERSTE LAGE: high and cool situated at the edge of the Palatinate Forest, not land-cleaned, smallest parcels and rugged limestone
• Kallstadter Steinacker - VDP.ERSTE LAGE: coolest and most barren vineyard of the Rings estate, limestone and limestone marl soils