The winery is located in the municipality of Johannisberg (part of Geisenheim) in the German wine-growing region of Rheingau. Emperor Napoleon (1769-1821) took possession of Johannisberg Castle in 1806 during his campaign against Prussia and handed it over to his marshal François-Étienne-Christophe Kellermann (1735-1820), the Duke of Valmy, for administration. However, there were three unsuccessful harvests between 1808 and 1810. In 1811, the enterprising wine merchant Gottlieb Mumm (1782-1852) from the famous Frankfurt banking and trading family P. A. Mumm offered to purchase the entire next harvest from Schloss Johannisberg before the harvest. The marshal was pleased with the supposed hasbardeur, as the 32,000 guilders on offer was good money for what might be another poor harvest.
But Gottlieb Mumm had the luck of the daring. The legendary vintage known as 1811 went down in wine history as the comet wine. Gottlieb Mumm invested the profits from 60,000 litres of this wine of the century in the purchase of exclusive vineyard sites in Johannisberg, thereby laying the foundations for today's winery. Incidentally, Gottlieb Mumm also founded the famous Mumm champagne house in Reims in 1827. However, it has no longer belonged to the family since it was confiscated by France after the First World War (1914-1918). In 1873, the Mumm family was elevated to the nobility under the title of Mumm von Schwarzenstein. Since 2004, Schwarzenstein Castle has belonged to a businessman from Mainz. Following a complete renovation in 2005, it now houses three restaurants and a hotel.
Christian Witte is the manager and Gerd Ritter is the cellar master. The vineyards cover 65 hectares of vines in 16 individual vineyards. Of these, 20 hectares are in vineyards classified as Erstes Gewächs. These are, for example, Berg Rottland and Berg Schlossberg (Rüdesheim), Frankenthal, Hinterkirch and Höllenberg(Assmannshausen), Hansenberg, Hölle, Klaus, Mittelhölle in sole ownership and Vogelsang (Johannisberg), as well as Hasensprung and Jesuitengarten (Winkel). The main grape varieties grown are Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir. The winery has been a VDP member since 2012.
