Trail Name: Rosheim – Rosenwiller (AKA: Circuit du Vignoble/Vineyard Tour)
Trail Type: Short-distance; well-maintained and with mostly wide paths, either paved or hard-packed earth, with very good marking on the trail
Length:
Total – 8.7 kilometers/5.5 miles
Convenient to:
Strasbourg, France
Marking:
Yellow circle on a white background
Another cycling route, and another chance to sample the wines along the Main River. The Main River valley is famous for its wines and its long-distance bike trail, the Main Radweg. It is one of Germany’s most popular cycling itineraries, justifiably beloved for its combination of pretty scenery, easy riding, welcoming towns and villages, and its wine culture. Many cyclists complete the entire Main Radweg. It is almost 400 kilometers long, and is not a circuit. This endeavor calls for time as well as careful advanced planning, which are usually in short supply for most of us. The Geniesser Tour cycling itinerary however is a wonderful alternative. Depending on stops, it is a half-day to a day-long circuit through one of the quietest sections of the Main Radweg in the Franconian wine region’s eastern Maindreieck district.
Beginning in Dettelbach, a well-known wine village, the trail followed along the river on the Main Radweg for about three kilometers. At Mainstockheim, the Geniesser Tour route peeled off into the hills above the river. The GWF, or the Winzergemeinschaft Franken, to give it its full name, came into view after passing through Buchbronn. GWF wines can come from grapes from various wine districts of Franconia. But the closest were found along the trail in the vineyards outside little Repperndorf. The trail entered Kitzingen shortly thereafter. It is undoubtedly the largest town in the area, with an historic center that is well worth the 500-meter detour. But if you push on, not to worry: the route does circle back to Kitzingen, albeit on the other side of the river.
What I Learned:
The Franconia wine region (Franken, in German) has several wine districts, and the Maindreieck district is perhaps the best known. Set along the Main river, it has some of the region’s most famous vineyard sites, dramatic scenery, and a thriving wine trade since the early Middle Ages.
Dreieck in German means triangle. The Maindreieck is a triangle of land surrounded on three sides by the Main River, a major tributary to the Rhine River. The river makes three dramatic curves close to the heart of Franconia, forming this triangular “peninsula”, hence the name of this viticultural area in south central Germany. The most important and undoubtedly best-known town for wine culture in this area is Wuerzburg, which in addition to some of the most well-known vineyards in Franconia, has the extremely popular wine bar on the old bridge.
Trail Name: Geniesser Tour
Trail Type: Long distance cycling circuit; well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, mostly good marking throughout the circuit
Length:
Total – 49 kilometers/ 30.5 miles
Convenient to: Kitzingen, and Wuerzburg, Germany
Marking:
An official Kitzinger Land tour, the signage for this tour numbered two includes outlines of a wine glass, wine bottle and plate of asparagus spears in burgundy on a white background.
There are discrete places that our memory captures in perpetuity for reasons unknown to us. Saarburg was one such place. A combination of road closures, road work detours and searching for a shortcut, took me there one afternoon. One glance at the compact historic center, rising dramatically above the serpentine Saar River, impressed itself so firmly in my mind that when I found a wine-themed hiking trail there, I knew that I would have to return to hike the trail.
What I Learned
In 2007, the German wine region of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, became known simply as the Mosel. But I want to highlight the unique wines of the Saar, a distinct territorial entity as indicated in the old designation. The Saar River is the Moselle River’s longest tributary. Lined by steep slopes, the Saar terroir is composed chiefly of blue Devonian slate. Since the Saar vineyards on the whole are higher in elevation than the Mosel vineyards, this slate component to the soil is particularly important as it captures and retains the heat of the sunshine, thus helping to ensure the grapes survive to reach maximum ripeness, sometimes as late as early November!
Trail Name: Saarweinwanderweg
Trail Type: Long distance circuit; almost exclusively paved or hard-packed surface, well maintained, and fairly well marked.
Length:
Total: 77.4 kilometers/ 48 miles
My stage: 16 kilometers/10 miles
Convenient to:
Trier, Germany
Marking:
White rectangular signs with blue lettering (See featured photo above.)
From water to wine, and wine-gardens, the literal translation of Weingarten, German for “vineyard.” That was both the theme and the reality of this circuit hike by Sankt Stefan ob Stainz. It was here in Styria, Steiermark, in German, that I began my exploration of the wines from this southeastern corner of Austria.
What I Learned
The Steiermark is a wine region in the southeast corner of Austria. It is called Styria in English. The Steiermark lies just north of the Slovenian Alps, and east of the Austrian ones. Within this political and wine entity, there are three wine sub-regions.
-The easternmost, the Suedoststeiermark lies closest to Hungary, from where gets some of its climatic influences. Its topography is moderately hilly in most places, and as the name for its Vulkanland district implies, is influenced by remains of ancient volcanos.
-The southernmost, is the Suedsteiermark, which shares a long border, as well as a tradition of viticulture, with Slovenia.
-Then there is the Weststeiermark. It is known by Austrian wine-lovers, and promoted by the local tourism industry, as Schilcher-land, home to a rose wine of the same name.
