Weingut Rings

The winery is located in the municipality of Freinsheim (area Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße) in the German wine-growing region Pfalz. The foundation for today's winery was laid by the parents with their fruit and wine farm, well into the 1990s. The first wines under their own label were marketed in 1993. With the 2001 vintage, junior Steffen Rings joined the business and completed the conversion to exclusively viticulture. After his apprenticeship at the Wagner-Stempel winery in Rheinhessen, Andreas Rings also returned and has been running the winery together with his brother since 2008.

In 2018, the newly built winery in the hills of the Freinsheim site "Schwarzes Kreuz" was put into operation. Most of the cellar is located under the hills, due to the natural cooling with a uniform temperature between 12 to 14 °Celsius, no energy-intensive cooling is required. The cellar produces its own electricity via a photovoltaic system on the roof. The "green roof" of the wine press house stores precipitation and contributes to cooling the building, humidifying the air and filtering fine dust through evaporation. Three rainwater cisterns with 60,000 litres are used for watering the green areas and for plant protection of the vines.

The vineyards were extended with plots from the best locations. In 2010, a parcel exposed precisely to the south in the Berntal nature reserve was reactivated on special terroir with limestone rocks and dry stone walls were rebuilt in the process. The vineyards cover 35 hectares of vines in the single vineyard sites Saumagen and Steinacker (Kallstadt), Schwarzes Kreuz (Freinsheim), Weilberg (Ungstein) and Felsenberg (Leistadt). They are planted with the white wine varieties Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as with the red wine varieties Pinot Noir, Blauer Portugieser, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, St. Laurent and Syrah.

The vineyards are cultivated according to the certified rules of organic viticulture. Quality criteria are strict yield reduction already on the vine, rigorous selection during harvest and late hand harvest. Since the 2007 vintage, all wines are fermented spontaneously. The wines are marketed in accordance with the VDP classification model in the lines of estate wines, local wines, wines from first or great sites as well as a Réserve line and red wine cuvées of the "Das Kreuz" series. Bottle-fermented sparkling wines are also produced. The winery has been a member of the VDP (Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates) since 2015. Around 180,000 bottles of wine are produced annually.