Weingut Okonomierat Rebholz

The story of the Okonomierat Rebholz winery

A certain stubbornness, especially when it comes to the quality and purity of our wines, has been part of the Rebholz family for generations. Eduard Rebholz (1889 - 1966), who transformed the company from a barrel filler to a bottler after the Second World War, stood for the Rebholz type that is so characteristic today, out of conviction in the quality of his own wine and out of fervent defiance of the zeitgeist that tends towards excessive sweetening and a lack of transparency. With Eduard Rebholz, the title of Economic Councilor also found its way into the winery. The Economic Councilor described his idea of natural wine in June 1951:

You will only ever get natural wines from my cellar, which are the result of painstaking and loving care of the vines and the same kind of cellar management (no sugaring, no artificial sweetening or similar fundamental structural changes that take away the wine`s original character and, in my eyes, make it no longer appear as a natural product).

We believe that the quality of the wine that will be produced is largely determined in the vineyard. Anything that is neglected there, whether intentionally or unintentionally, can only be inadequately compensated for by even the most sophisticated cellar management. Rebholz wine is therefore the product of a viticulture that seeks to achieve the highest ripeness of the grapes using all the means available to it, and a cellar management that does not harm the wine in any way. We not only refrain from the legally permitted wine improvement by adding sugar or sugar water... but above all we strictly reject those legally permitted `modern methods` of wine treatment (stopping fermentation, adding sweet wine or grape juice, etc.), which all serve only one purpose: sweetness; the sweetness that is supposed to dominate the wine and make it appear more valuable.

Hans Rebholz (1920-1978) also continued the legacy of the dry, then unfashionable, but clean and sublime Rebholz type and experienced the renaissance of German dry wine before his far too early death.
Mrs. Christine continued to run the winery and even then had the young Hansjorg at his side, who saw on a daily basis the rejection of the fashion of the time and the commitment to the traditions of his mother and father. Hansjorg and his wife Birgit have been steering the fortunes of the winery since the mid-1990s. Like the generations before them, they stand by the principles and traditions of the house. The expansion of the operating area, joining the VDP and the commitment to sustainable management through organic and, shortly afterwards, biodynamic certification, further underpin the principles that the Okonomierat Rebholz winery stands for to this day. Principles that the next generation, including the sons Hans and Valentin, also supports.

Weingut Ökonomierat Rebholz