Eric Manz has arrived in the modern age—you can see that just by looking at the energetic Rheinhessen winemaker in his prime. In 2025, the winery celebrated 300 years of winegrowing – and with its modern-style winery building, the Manz family is also pointing the way to the future. At the same time, the cool winemaker Eric has remained true to himself: "We remain down-to-earth, rooted in the region – we're not into anything pretentious!"

The outstanding architecture of the wine shop and treasure chamber is impressive at first glance, almost monumental – but on closer inspection, it reveals classic elements, cleverly styled regionality, and pleasant restraint. The modern building is not a spaceship in a wine village, but rather architecture that blends into its rural surroundings. Together with Palatinate architect Tim Reiter, Eric Manz created a place that reflects all aspects of the winery. "Craftsmanship, passion, fascination" is written on dark blocks together with the winery logo outside the building. "The three terms stand for the designations estate wine, local wine, and single-vineyard wine," explains Eric Manz. The striking logo also has a regional reference: in a stylized form, it echoes the shape of a historic Franconian amulet found during excavations in Weinolsheim: "It looks like four people holding heaven and earth together, connected by four wine cups," is Eric's fitting interpretation. The winemaker had long wanted a modern wine shop—and he has more than succeeded.

The spacious room impresses with a beautiful panoramic view of the Rhine-Hessian vineyards and the Petersberg. The eye-catcher is a 28-square-meter stone slab with original soil from the winery's top vineyards. Europe's largest soil profile shows the red soil of the Pettenthal and Hipping vineyards, clay marl and shell limestone, and even the loess soil on the Rhine front. The profiles exemplify the diversity of soil in Rheinhessen. Following the stairs down the vine root in the clay marl profile, you enter the impressive treasure chamber built with exposed concrete. "We have a complete collection of bottles dating back to the 1937 vintage!" says Eric Manz happily. In the middle, big bottles in double magnum and larger sizes are lined up.

The modern architecture is based on traditional structures: three generations work together in this typical Rheinhessen family business, with parents Conny and Erich, Eric with his wife Martina and Eric's brother, and their children Pauline and Julius. The winery has now grown to an impressive size, cultivating around 70 hectares of vineyards. Burgundy varieties account for two-thirds of the grape varieties, with Riesling making up 20%. This grape variety produces the winery's top wines from the Weinolsheimer Kehr and Niersteiner Pettenthal vineyards. "I stand for authentic, down-to-earth wines that are influenced by the terroir," emphasizes cellar master Eric Manz, who learned his craft at the renowned Keller winery. The award-winning wines confirm his work – at the Federal Wine Awards, the winery received the prize for the best dry white wine collection of the year – teamwork pays off.

The jury awarded the Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Award 2025 national and international in the category "Architecture, Parks & Gardens" with a focus on architecture to the Manz Winery with full conviction. "An absolute top address in our region!"

TV and wine journalist Wolfgang Junglas works for SWR television in Mainz in the entertainment department, where he is responsible for programs such as "Wahl der Deutschen Weinkönigin" (German Wine Queen Pageant). He is an author, chairman of Weinfeder eV, president of FIJEV, and lecturer at Geisenheim University—and, since 2021, blogger for GWC Mainz | Rheinhessen.