German wine is well known. As are German woods and forests: The Odenwald, and the Black Forest (Schwarzwald, in German), to name a couple of famous ones. So, when I found a circuit trail entitled Wein und Wald Runde (roughly translated as Wine and Woods Circuit), I really looked forward to cycling it.
What I Learned
In the German region of Wuerttemberg, a lot of wine is produced. Much of it grows on steep hillsides facing the Neckar River, but some of it is produced in the valleys of its main tributaries. Wuerttemberg is a hilly state, with well-drained, sun-facing slopes in many districts. The vines and orchards compete to cover slopes in Wuerttemberg’s wine district of the Untere Neckartal (also known apparently as Wuerttembergisches Unterland), near Heilbronn, in southern Germany.
Continue reading Wine Notes: Wuerttemberg’s Untere Neckartal
Trail Name: Wein & Wald Runde (Wine and Woods Circuit) (AKA: SB3)
Trail Type: Mid-distance cycling itinerary circuit; well-maintained, with much of it paved, and well-marked, along most of the itinerary route
Length:
Total – 28 kilometers/17.4 miles
Convenient to: Heilbronn, Germany
Marking: SB3 and trail name letters in white on a colorful square metal sign
Weinfelden means wine fields in German, and in Switzerland, the Canton of Thurgau, there is a small town with this name. Not surprisingly, vineyards surround it, and the town’s hiking wine itinerary passes through them.
A promising start to any wine trail itinerary, surely. Additionally, this particular trail promised a wine education path, and diverse opportunities to sample wine along the way. So, making my way to the trailhead in the center of Weinfelden, set on the banks of the Thur River, I was intent on hiking the trail as well as learning about and tasting the local wines.
What I Learned
The canton of Thurgau, in north central Switzerland, is a wine producing canton. For wine purposes, this canton has several different districts: The Upper Thur Valley, the Lower Thur Valley, Rhine, Lauchetal, Seebachtal, and Untersee. Its northern most section, the Untersee faces onto Lake Constance and the High Rhine. Much of the rest of the canton wine production lies in the valley of the Thur River, a tributary to the Rhine, from which the canton gets its name.
Trail Name: Weinfelden Weinweg
Trail Type: A short distance circuit; well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, good marking on the trail
Length:
Total – 9 kilometers/6 miles
Convenient to: St Gallen, Switzerland; Konstanz, Germany
Marking: Burgundy colored metal arrow, with green grape leaf and trail name letters. See featured photo above.
After having hiked through the steep and forested slopes of the Mittelrhein, I continued my tour of the Rheingau wine region’s vineyards by bicycle. At Ruedesheim, I left the Rheingauer Riesling-pfad (see here), and hopped on a bike following the Rheingauer Riesling Route. The two trails cover the Rheingau vineyard area, but following somewhat different routes.
I was immediately struck by how different the wine area upriver from Ruedesheim is from that downriver of it. Upriver from Ruedesheim, the world heritage site of the “Mittelrhein” ends. The obvious difference is that the river suddenly opens up again. The narrow chasm defining the romantic middle Rhine with its vertiginously steep slopes disappears, replaced by gentler vine-bearing slopes. Cities soon replace quaint villages, and the river takes on a more business-like aspect, industry, ports for shipping, and riverside loading facilities.
What I Learned
The Rheingau, in the German state of Hesse, has one of the smallest total vineyard areas in all of Germany. But nonetheless, it has a huge importance in the world of wines. It is not only one of the most famous wine areas in Germany, it is also strung along one of the most famous stretches of river in the world!
Rheingau wine aficionados can point with pride to a long and continuous tradition of wine-making in this area: from having one of the oldest wine estates in Germany, Schloss Vollrads, to a monastery founded by the medieval St Hildegard, where the nuns still grow grapes.
Trail Name: Rheingauer Riesling Route
Trail Type: Long distance trail; almost exclusively paved, well maintained; the route itself is marked in part with the wine glass marking (see below), and other parts are marked with an R3.
Length:
Total: 62 kilometers/38.5 miles (Kaub to Floersheim)
Segment: 49 kilometers/30.5 miles (Ruedesheim to Floersheim)
Convenient to: Wiesbaden, or Mainz, Germany
Marking:
White wine glass with a crown on a green background; Alternatively: R3 and R3a (variant to Kloster Eberbach). Where the icon marking is not easily found, follow the R3 or R3a signs.
Continue reading Rheingauer Riesling Route: Trail in a Nutshell
