What I Learned:
Austria has 20 wine regions, one of which is the Wachau, situated along the banks of the Danube, upriver from Vienna.
Wine production in the Wachau region dates to at least the 1130s.
The geography helps to make grape-growing possible. The ancient Danube River helped created the loess soils, and now serves to moderate temperatures; the bowls formed by the steep hill slopes (called Ried), shelter vines from winds and capture the sun’s heat.
What I Learned:
If you haven’t heard much about Swiss wine – don’t be surprised. Less than 3% of all Swiss wine production is exported!
What I Learned:
By way of overall explanation, the term Cote D’Or (Golden Slope) has a couple of meanings: it refers to a department in France, and it refers to a geological phenomenon, a large limestone ridge, that gives its name to a wine region. The wine region is subdivided into two sections: the northern Cote de Nuits, and the southern Cote de Beaune. This post covers the northern, Cote de Nuits, section, which runs from approximately just south of Dijon to just south of Corgoloin in Burgundy.
Continue reading Wine Notes: Burgundy Cote D’Or – Cote de Nuits
What I Learned:
Many areas of the Upper Middle Rhine do not produce wine: the geography just isn’t suitable or practicable, even for growing other crops, so steep are the slopes rising from the river’s edge; and that makes the vineyards along this section of the Rhine even more special and beloved.
Riesling dominates overwhelmingly here: over 70% of the plantings in this area are of Riesling vines. Its closest numerical competition comes from the approximately 9% of Spaetburgunder plantings. So these two varietals, one white, the other red, equal approximately 80% of all cultivated vines in this area. Muller-Thurgau, Kerner, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris make up about 11% of all remaining cultivated white varietals. Dornfelder and Portugieser make up the remaining red varietals.
What I Learned:
Along the Main River in Franconia (Franken, in German), there are three wine districts of good repute: Maindreieck, Mainviereck, and the Steigerwald, set slightly off the river, but still enjoying a climate mild enough to grow grapes. This post focuses on the Maindreieck district only.
What I Learned:
The northern part of the Pfalz wine region is known as Mittelhaardt, beginning around Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, and continuing to around Worms, in Zellertal.
Reds grown here include the Spaetburgunder (Pinot Noir), and Dornfelder, among others. But Riesling grapes predominate, as more than half the grapes grown in this region are of this varietal. Other white varietals of German fame include Mueller-Thurgau, Kerner, and Gewurztraminer. One varietal cultivated here, not often heard of in the non-German world, is known as the Scheurebe. In 1916, German viticulturalist, Georg Scheu, created this grape in his institute’s laboratory in Alzey, not far from the northern edges of the Mittelhaardt. This varietal is often destined to produce the sweet wines.
Continue reading Wine Notes: Pfalz Mittelhaardt Wine District
What I Learned:
The Pfalz has a long 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, some of which are in the museum in Edenkoben, bear witness to this long history. The tradition continued with the establishment of regional monasteries, such as the one in Wissembourg, France, just south of today’s Weintor in neighboring Germany, dating to the 600s; and important dioceses’ centers in old Roman districts, such as Worms and Speyer. (Church services required wine, hence vineyards for the raw material.)
What I Learned:
Switzerland has several wine regions, and this post covers the wines produced in the French-speaking Valais and Vaud Cantons, in the southwest of the country.
Continue reading Wine Notes: Switzerland Vaud and Valais Cantons
What I Learned:
Lagrein, Vernatsch and Gerwuerztraminer are three grape varieties traditionally grown in this South Tirol Region.
What I Learned:
The Moselle River wineries are not that far from the Rhine river wineries in the Rheingau and the Rhein-Hesse wine regions, but they are figuratively speaking a world apart. Equally as proud of their line of products, which have centuries of tradition behind them, both river valley wine growers share something else in common: the cultivation of the Riesling grape as the single-most common varietal grown.
