Category Archives: Germany

One River, Two Trails

 

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.

Above Dettelbach

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Wine Notes: Maindreieck

 

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.

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Geniesser Tour: Trail in a Nutshell

 

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.

Geniesser Tour Signage

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A Saarweinwanderweg Hike

 

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.

Saarburg and its Vineyards

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Wine Notes: Saar (Mosel)

 

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!

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Saarweinwanderweg: Trail in a Nutshell

 

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.)

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On Wuerttemberg’s Weinradweg

 

Wuerttemberg’s Weinradweg (Wine Cycle Route) complements this German state’s long-distance, wine-themed hiking trail, and extends a bit further south as well. When it comes to wine trails, both the hiking trail and this biking trail fall in the category of extensive. I had already hiked, and really enjoyed, parts of the 470 kilometers/292 miles-long hiking trail. I wanted to explore the bike trail as well.

Since I knew I would never complete the whole route, I decided to cover new ground, the area south of Stuttgart, along the Neckar River, one section of Wuerttemberg’s wine country that the complementary hiking route does not reach. Looking at the trail map, it is easy to see that the very first segment lends itself nicely to a circuit route: starting from Rottenburg am Neckar, and going to Tubingen, via the Ammerbuch valley, and returning to Rottenburg along the easy, popular and well-marked Neckar Valley bike trail.

Ducks on the Ammer

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Wine Notes: Wuerttemberg’s Oberer Neckar

 

What I Learned

The Oberer Neckar, Upper Neckar, in English, is the smallest wine district in the Wuerttemberg Wine Region, with only about 30 hectares (acres) to its credit. The district’s name is due to its position in the upper third of the valley defined by the Neckar River. Its closest viticultural neighbors, Metzingen and Neuffen, as well as the Stuttgart Weinsteige, lie to the north (downriver) within the Remstal-Stuttgart wine district of the Wuerttemberg wine region.

Historically, the region’s vintners were challenged to get a crop undamaged to harvest. Tradition says that their wines were sour, and hence having a poor reputation for quality. Since 1990, that is changing. Helped by climate change (meaning better ripening for the grapes), and education, the wines are much improved.

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