What I Learned
The Appellation Touraine Amboise Controlee, is a small appellation, in plots spread out over nine municipalities in and around the old town of Amboise. It covers about 200 hectares/500 acres, off both the left and the right banks of the Loire River.
What I Learned
Alsace wines are varietal wines (excepting the Edelzwickers), and of these, only one is a red wine. That wine is from the Pinot Noir varietal. Alsatian Pinot Noir wines are not generally well known. Alsatian Pinot Noir wines tend to be lighter, but very fruit-forward Pinot Noir wines. They are, of course, different from Burgundian Pinot Noir wines, from which tradition they derive. Early in the 12th century monks from Burgundy headed into Alsace, bringing vine plantings with them. When they arrived around Mont Sainte Odile (site of an early Merovingian foundation), they successfully transplanted their vines on the lower, sunny slopes.
What I Learned
The Rhineland Palatinate’s Suedliche Weinstrasse (Southern Wine Route) has a long-documented history of wine-making. Grapes were cultivated and processed into wine even in the early days of Roman settlement along the Rhine. The implements found throughout various sites in this part of the Pfalz, (the German name for Palatinate), some of which are in the wine museum in Edenkoben, bear witness to this long and continuous history.
What I Learned
The production area for Prosecco DOC wines maybe be found throughout northeastern Italy in the provinces of Belluno, Pordenone, Treviso, Padua, Gorizia, Udine, Venice and Vicenza. However, two major production districts within the Veneto region, in the Province of Treviso, are particularly well-known: Conegliano and Valdobbiadene (stress on the second “A”, in case you wondered). This is the designated Prosecco DOCG area, a higher quality level than the Prosecco DOC. Conegliano anchors the eastern part of the area. Valdobbiadene is located in the western part of the area. Wines from there may carry the Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore, DOCG label if they meet the higher quality standard regulations. The wines in this post focus on the Valdobbiadene district of the Veneto’s “Prosecco” region.
What I Learned
The Markgraeflerland district is along the southern-most section of the Rhine as it borders France, in the region of Baden, in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. It is the southern-most wine producing district in Germany. It begins in Weil am Rhein, just outside the Swiss city of Basel, and continues almost to Freiburg. The vineyards lie on the foothills between the river valley floor, and the Black Forest mountains to the east. About 3000 hectares, and 90 cooperatives, cellars and wine estates are dedicated to the production of this region’s wine, carried out the in the villages and small towns that dot this area.
What I Learned:
Beaune, situated at the northern end of the Cote de Beaune, is a capital city. Not in any political sense, but it certainly reigns supreme as the capital city of Burgundy wines. Within the district of Beaune’s 410 hectares (slightly over a thousand acres) of vines there are 42 Premier Cru vineyards. The majority of wines bearing the Beaune appellation are Pinot Noir.
During late medieval times, especially under the powerful Dukes of Burgundy, its wine enjoyed a particularly great reputation in the rest of France and the Low Countries. Over the years, other villages in the Cote de Beaune region have come to enjoy greater reputations for their wines perhaps, but Beaune continues to attract wine-lovers from around the world.
What I Learned:
Carnuntum’s wine district, with its center around Hoeflein and Goettlesbrunn, is one of eight districts in the Niederoesterreich (Lower Austria) Wine Region, most of which lie along, or at least relatively close to the Danube. It is a district with a proud vine cultivation history pre-dating even the Romans, extending as far back in time as the Celts.
Carnuntum has three principle growing areas, the Leithagebirge, the Hainburger Berge and the Arbesthaler Huegelland. Soils throughout are mostly sandy and loamy. Small differences in the soil though make for different challenges and ultimately different wines. The area’s named vineyards, or Riede, are well-known by local vintners.
What I Learned
The Monferrato has a long tradition of wine-making, pre-dating even the Romans. As the famous Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder noted, the Romans greatly appreciated the wine coming from the Muscat grape cultivated in the Monferrato as a varietal resistant to cold weather.
The rise of Christianity and establishment of monastic organizations ensured that even after the fall of the Roman Empire, and especially after the barbarian invasions, the production of wine would continue in the Monferrato up until today.
What I Learned
The northeast corner of Switzerland, where Germany, Austria and Switzerland group together around Lake Constance and the Lower Lake(the Bodensee and the Untersee, in German), is marketed as Mediterranean-like. While the area does boast some of the warmer and sunnier days in this part of the German-speaking world, due in part to the lake and the Rhine River which flows through it, the reality is that it is often cloudy, if not rainy, with windy and cool conditions. Hence vintners here face challenges growing grapes.
In 1882, Hermann Mueller, a local man, came to the rescue. Born in the village of Taegerwilen, within sight of Germany’s city of Constance and its Swiss conjoined city Kreuzlingen, he grew up in this area. His father was a part-time vintner, and his mother from the great wine region of the German Rheingau (further up the Rhine). Oenology was in his blood. After completing high school in Constance, and teaching for a stint in nearby Stein am Rhein, he entered the University of Wuerzburg where he graduated with a Ph.D. in botany. He worked in the Rheingau at the Prussian Institute for Horticulture and Viticulture, but the issues faced by Thurgau grape producers were not far from his mind.
What I Learned
This post focuses on the Steigerwald district of the Franconian wine region, and more specifically on the village of Castell.
The Franconian Wine Region has three distinct wine districts: The Mainviereck, the Maindreieck and the Steigerwald. Unlike the first two, the Steigerwald wine district is not located along the Main River. This means that the climate-moderating effects of a river do not apply here. And since here is in central Germany, spring frosts can come later, and fall frosts can come earlier, then elsewhere in this region.
