A Drop of Eternity – or a Myth Under Scrutiny?.

It rests under glass, cloaked in centuries of dust, stored in a wooden crate like a treasure from a distant time: the so-called “1540 Steinwein” – a bottle that raises more questions than it answers, and yet, like no other wine, it stirs the imagination of the wine world. Today, it lies in the historic cellar of the VDP estate Bürgerspital zum Heiligen Geist in Würzburg. It is a monument – not just to wine, but to the stories it holds.

The Renaissance, in which this wine is said to have originated, had long swept over Europe by the time this bottle was filled. Yet it wasn’t the 16th century, as one might assume. The glass bottle itself almost certainly dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. Its shape and craftsmanship would not have been possible during the days of Charles V, Martin Luther, or Nostradamus. It wasn’t until the 17th century that English glassmaker Kenelm Digby developed a method for mass-producing thick-walled glass bottles. And the cork stopper, as we know it today, didn’t come into widespread use until the 18th century.

And yet, the bottle bears the label “1540” – a date that has become synonymous with one of the hottest summers in European history.

The Myth of the 1540 Vintage

The 1540 vintage is legendary. In that unprecedented year of drought, grapes grown on the Würzburger Stein likely became particularly rich in sugar and concentration. But the wine we see today at Bürgerspital was not bottled shortly thereafter – the technical means simply didn’t exist. Instead, one must imagine a long story of barrel ageing: centuries during which the wine – or rather, what began as wine from the 1540 vintage – rested in large wooden casks.

Whether it is truly a varietal wine from that single vintage is historically unlikely. In the early modern period, it was customary to top up barrels using the solera principle. What was put into cask in 1540 was later supplemented with wines from other years. The cask bore the date of its origin – but not its unblended contents. This is comparable to the tradition still followed in Montilla-Moriles today, where a “Pedro Ximénez Solera 1927” may bear that date but contains little, if any, wine from 1927.

Only at the beginning of the 19th century, when bottling became fashionable in Germany, was the decision made to transfer this venerable cask wine – or what remained of it – into glass.

Henry G. Simon and Rudolf Fries – Guardians of a Treasure

What followed is a story of war, exile, and homecoming. During the Second World War, the Jewish Simon family took the last remaining bottles of the 1540 wine with them into exile in England. In the 1960s, Henry G. Simon, descendant of a winemaking family from Wiesbaden, offered the historic bottle to the Staatlicher Hofkeller. But they declined – even though the wine may once have come from their own holdings.

Simon turned to the Bürgerspital. There, the estate’s cellar master Rudolf Fries immediately recognized the cultural and historical value of the wine. He managed to secure six bottles on loan, including two bearing the label “1540.” Simon’s wish was clear: “The wine should return home – and remain preserved in Würzburg.”

Today, Henry G. Simon and his wife have passed away. The decision about the wine’s future lay with their daughters, who chose to entrust the bottles to the Bürgerspital – a gesture that preserves the myth without glorifying it. “For a long time, it was unclear what would happen. All the more reason we’re grateful to continue safeguarding this treasure,” says estate director Robert Haller.

“In case the bottle is ever reclaimed or sold, we’re prepared to create a replica as a visible symbol of the remarkable story surrounding this object,” Haller adds.

A Matter of Taste?

An impertinent question, perhaps. And yet—there is an answer. In 1961, a rare wine tasting in London brought And what does such a wine taste like? We will likely never truly know. Yet one historical moment offered a fleeting glimpse. In 1961, a rare wine tasting took place in London. Among the few participants was the young Hugh Johnson. He was granted two small sips from one of the bottles and wrote:

Johnson wrote: “Before the wine succumbed to contact with air, it was still remarkably alive. Nothing else has ever shown me so vividly that wine is truly a living organism.”

The Heatwave of 1540 – The Year of Megadrought – Europe’s Forgotten Climate Catastrophe

What kind of year gave rise to this myth? An international research team led by Dr. Oliver Wetter at the University of Bern analyzed more than 300 historical chronicles. Their study, published in Climate Change, identifies the year 1540 as an epochal climate disaster: eleven months without significant rainfall, dried-up rivers, failed crops, famine. Toward the end of the summer, necessity inspired invention: where grapes still ripened, the resulting wine was sweet, dense, and highly concentrated.

And yet it is hardly conceivable that a wine from that harvest has left more than traces in a bottle today.

Between Legend and Cultural History

The 1540 Steinwein is not a literal time capsule, and yet it holds immeasurable value. It stands for collective memory, for our yearning for permanence in the ephemeral. And it demonstrates how history and legend can meet in a glass of wine.

That it is preserved today, along with other historical rarities, at the Bürgerspital is a gift to German wine culture. Perhaps this drop calls more for humility than awe: not everything old is unspoiled. But some things that endure are all the more precious for the questions they leave unanswered.

Wine Historical Corrections

Dr Stefan Pegatzky

Special thanks to Dr Pegatzky for his knowledgeable and valuable feedback on my article about the 1540 Steinwein at the Bürgerspital in Würzburg. His historical corrections and additions were not only factually sound, but also instrumental in placing the text on solid academic footing – without diminishing the allure of this exceptional artifact.

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Photo Credit Titel: © Weingut Bürgerspital/C.Herdt (The oldest authentic vintage 1540 – the last of its series and probably the oldest wine bottle in the world)

Photo Credit Text: © Bürgerspital/C. Herdt Vineyard (the oldest authentic wines in the world. Formerly owned by the late King Ludwig of Bavaria 1786–1868) – from left to right: 1822 Rüdesheimer, 1822 Johannisberger, 1540 Steinwein (empty bottle), 1540 Steinwein (unopened), 1822 Rüdesheimer, 1857 Rüdesheimer

Wine lovers can find out more about the topic at the Bürgerspital winery:
https://www.buergerspital.de/wineestate/winetasting/index.html