Sand am Main and Zeil am Main are two traditional wine-growing villages that lie opposite each other on the Main River. In past centuries, due to their location, they have been claimed by the Bamberg and then again by the Würzburg prince-bishops. While Roger Nüßlein's winery in Zeil am Main is located in the historic tithe court of the Bamberg prince-bishop, Mathias Rippstein's winery is situated in the parish of Sand am Main, just halfway to the pilgrimage church of Maria Limbach.
And this church was planned from 1751 by Johann Balthasar Neumann on behalf of the Würzburg Prince-Bishop Friedrich Carl von Schönborn. The client had been cured from a hip ailment by the miraculous Virgin Mary in Limbach on his way to Bamberg. Thus, even today, it is fair to say that the vintners of Sand and Zeil am Main either give the traveler the last delicious pint of Franconian wine on the way to Upper Franconia, or provide a first, richly impressive taste of Franconian vinification art when the wine connoisseur continues down the Main. And it should not be surprising if the Rippstein family's winery were soon to become a place of pilgrimage for wine connoisseurs. In the Himmelsbühl vineyards grow the grapes for fruity-fresh wines of the highest quality, which Mathias Rippstein vinifies in the new wine press house and the ripening rooms accessible at ground level. Since the fall of 2015, wine connoisseurs have been able to enjoy the delicious successes of his winemaking skills in the new vinotheque, which is located on the first floor of the Rippstein residence and has a view of the wine press house and the house vineyard. The house itself is an elegant and generous gesture of welcome to guests. And the vinotheque inside is a light-filled experience space with no-frills furnishings. All senses in the vinotheque should be directed to the primal ground of this architectural vessel - to the wine.
