Würzburger Stein

[2] While some production still took place, viticulture on Würzburger Stein declined—as it did in most of Franconia—from the 16th to 19th century as a combination of frequent wars, vineyard pests (such as the phylloxera epidemic) and growing public taste for tea and coffee took its toll on the wine market.

[2] In the 1840s the vineyard was visited by French wine writer André Jullien who described the sweet Steinwein from Würzburger Stein as being very potent and liable to cause violent headaches if too much was consumed.

[4] A cask of Steinwein from the Würzburger Stein vineyard was kept by the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, being regularly "topped" up with newer wine of a similar quality in order to avoid oxidation from the evaporation of what is known as the "angel's share".

In his book, Vintage: The Story of Wine (1989), Johnson recounts that the Steinwein was "Madeira-like" with deep brown coloring and was almost like a "living organism" in how it survived so long and still gave evidence of the German terroir of the vineyard.

"[4] An unopened bottle from the 1540 vintage, making it at least 484 years old, is still kept today in the cellars of the Bürgerspital zum Heiligen Geist wine estate, a charitable foundation based in Würzburg.

[1] The word "stein" in German means "stone" and refers to the rocky limestone soil of the vineyard located on a hillside outside of the city of Würzburg that overlooks the Main river.

The concave shape of the hill and steep incline of the slope give the vines ideal exposure that, coupled with the tempering influence of the nearby river, helps the grapes to fully ripen yet maintain the acidity levels needed to balance the sugars.