Wilhelm Weil, who learned the winemaking craft from the ground up, set the course for the future of the winery in 1987 with consistent decisions. With farsighted investments in the cellar and vineyard and the introduction of the Tiffany blue label, he, the great-grandson of the founder, brought worldwide attention to Weil Riesling.
On the winery's 90 ha of vineyard area, only Riesling is grown. The consistent cultivation of the king of grape varieties as well as working in the vineyard according to the guidelines of ecologically certified viticulture – with purely organic fertilization, cover cropping in every second row, and the avoidance of herbicides – aim, as since the founding of the winery, at the sustainable production of the most valuable wines.
Quality and the unmistakable identity of a wine have their origin in the vineyard. The vineyards of the Robert Weil winery belong, as high locations in the foothill zone of the Taunus ridge, to the best in the Rheingau. The vines, planted with a density of 5,000 to 6,000 stocks per hectare, are sometimes more than 50 years old.
The harvest rarely begins before October and lasts at least eight weeks. During this time of the most intensive selective handpicking with up to seventeen passes in the vineyards, our goal is to harvest all Riesling designations up to Trockenbeerenauslese from the best grapes. A goal that has been achieved year after year in a unique uninterrupted sequence worldwide since the 1989 vintage.
Gentle handling of the harvest is the top priority at the Robert Weil winery: Using vibration grape carts for transport, the grapes are brought to the presses according to the vertical principle. After gentle pressing, the musts flow by gravity into the receiving tank storage, where they are pre-clarified by natural sedimentation.
The planned style of a wine determines the choice of container: full-bodied, dry wines are fermented and aged in large wooden barrels, where they develop complex structures through micro-oxidation, while the lighter, fruit-driven, and noble sweet Rieslings are fermented in stainless steel tanks to best bring out their finesse and elegance.
