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Equipment · Tanks and vats
A wine fermentation and maturation tank carved from a single granite block, with a thick mineral shell and fitted metal closures and taps.
A carved natural-stone wine vessel is a freestanding tank hollowed from a solid block rather than a clay jar, a bedrock press or a structure built into the ground. Giesen describes its bespoke tanks as single slabs of volcanic rock, weighing more than three tonnes and holding around 750 litres. The maker's photograph shows two broad, squat vessels with thick, visibly crystalline granite walls, top fittings and taps near the base. Their mass is part of the object: this is winery-scale equipment installed with specialist stoneworking and lifting, not a small household fermenter.
Giesen says the tanks were sourced from a stonemason in Germany and brought into use at its winery for fermentation and maturation. That distinction matters: Germany is the documented place of manufacture, while Marlborough, New Zealand is the documented wine-growing and use region named for Giesen's Gemstone Riesling. This does not claim that granite winemaking originated in either place. Giesen also says French winemakers have used granite vessels for centuries; the page supplies no historical dates or chain of evidence for this particular tank form, so that statement is best read as the winery's context for its modern experiment rather than a dated origin story.
The winery reports that the granite keeps wine at a consistently low temperature and permits slow air exchange; it compares the gradual evaporation it observes to a barrel's effect on concentration. These are maker observations about its own tanks, not a quantified performance specification. The page gives no measured heat-transfer profile, oxygen-transmission rate, evaporation percentage, or operating limits. Granite is a natural material, so results cannot be assumed identical across blocks, finishes, dimensions or closures. In practice, the fitted lid and the way the vessel is run are part of the system: stone alone does not tell a winemaker how much air reaches a batch or what temperature it will hold.
Giesen documents use of its tanks for white-wine fermentation, maturation and storage, naming Riesling, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The current Gemstone Riesling page says the wine's fruit comes from Marlborough and that fermentation occurred in granite and stainless-steel fermenters. A stone vessel can hold a wine parcel without adding oak flavour, but this does not make it interchangeable with stainless steel, a wooden barrel or clay: each material and closure presents a different surface and exposure to air. The source does not publish cleaning instructions, a sealing method, pressure rating, food-contact certification, transport procedure or a maintenance schedule. Those details must come from the maker for the individual tank. Its reported capacity and weight also describe Giesen's bespoke example, not a universal specification for every carved-stone tank.
The documented example is contemporary: Giesen says it sourced bespoke tanks from a German stonemason for use at its winery. The company also describes granite wine vessels as a practice used by French winemakers for centuries; that producer statement does not date this particular tank or prove that modern carved tanks share one uninterrupted design history.
Giesen says it sourced its bespoke granite tanks from a stonemason in Germany; this records manufacture sourcing, not an origin claim for all stone wine vessels.
Giesen documents its winery use of granite tanks and identifies Gemstone Riesling as Marlborough wine; this records one documented use, not a tradition of origin.
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Giesen WinesDescription · Materials · Capacity · Manufacture · Use · Geography
Granite TanksGiesen says its tanks were sourced from a stonemason in Germany, cut from a single slab of volcanic rock, weigh over three tonnes and hold around 750 L.
Giesen reports using the tanks for wine fermentation, maturation and storage at its winery, and describes its own observations about temperature, air exchange and evaporation without quantified performance data.
The page gives no exact date of manufacture, tank dimensions, care instructions, safety certification, general supplier route or measured permeability.
Cited in: A tank carved from one block; German manufacture, New Zealand use; What the stone may contribute; Fermentation, maturation and care
Giesen WinesDocumented use · Geography
Gemstone RieslingGiesen identifies Gemstone Riesling as a Marlborough wine and says fermentation occurred in granite and stainless-steel fermenters; it links the granite tanks with fermentation and maturation.
Cited in: German manufacture, New Zealand use; Fermentation, maturation and care