Tag Archives: Hiking and Biking European Wine Country

France, Hiking

Rambling Along the Ramberge

Amboise is a delightful town in the Loire River valley. It is also the center of one of the smallest appellations in the area, the Appellation Touraine Amboise Controlee. I finally had a chance to visit!

Amboise has a low-key, country town atmosphere. But there is nothing small about its attractions, which include a magnificent royal chateau, perched high above the river, a compact historical center, and the Clos de Luce, the final home of Leonardo Da Vinci. It is especially photogenic, set as it is along the impressively broad Loire, and against the backdrop of low green hills. Finally, there are the wines, notably the chilled Roses, especially appealing on warm summer days.

Chateau d'Amboise
Chateau d’Amboise

 

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France, Hiking, Nutshell

Entre Vignes et Ramberge: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: Entre Vignes et Ramberge

Trail Type: Short distance circuit; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, and fairly well-marked marked.

Length: Total: 8 kilometers/5 miles

Convenient to: Amboise, France

Marking: Wooden plaques identify the trailheads (See above); Yellow lines, straight or bent to indicate direction, below.

Trail Signage for Left Turn
Trail Signage for Left Turn

 

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Biking, France

Finish with a Red

 

At a wine tasting with both red and white wines, organizers usually end the event with the red wine selection. In my most recent bike tour, I began in white wine territory, (albeit one that produces a decent Pinot Noir as well), and finished the trail in an Alsatian village known for its reds. In between, the trail wound through other compact villages with colorful visuals, people and history, and vineyards, lots of vineyards.

So it was with this trail: wonderful, diverse wines, interesting villages, and a bit of history, all in one beautiful day. From the outset in Marlenheim, the trail revealed its rural tendencies. The first ten kilometers or so were along a beautifully maintained bicycle-only trail, set amidst green fields, woods, and past the backs of villages. After Molsheim (home to the first Grand Cru along the trail) and Dorlisheim, another four and a half kilometers of peaceful trail resumes. Be it through fields or vineyards, there were plenty of sights and views to admire. Alsatian countryside is idyllic, the villages beyond charming, and the trail highlighted the opportunities to appreciate these.

Bike Trail near Start
Bike Trail near Start

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France, Wines

Wine Notes: Alsatian Red Wine

 

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.

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Biking, France, Nutshell

Veloroute du Vignoble d’Alsace: Trail in a Nutshell

 

Trail Name: Veloroute du Vignoble d’Alsace

Trail Type: Long distance; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, but the route itself is not marked.

Length: Total: 138 kilometers / 85.75 miles

North segment (this post): 62 kilometers / 38.5 miles

South segment: 76 kilometers / 47.25 miles

Convenient to: Strasbourg, Colmar, Mulhouse

Marking: White, stylized grapes with a white bicycle and bicyclist superimposed on a green square background.

Veloroute du Vignoble d'Alsace Signage
Veloroute du Vignoble d’Alsace Signage

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Biking, Germany

Biking through the Garden of Eden

 

Edenkoben, a delightful little town in the heart of the Suedliche Weinstrasse wine district, is situated in a real garden of Eden in many respects. One of its original conventual foundations, Cloister Heilsbruck, did quite well from this bounteous land, and had a reputation even back then, for its vines. One of the warmer, sunnier spots in all of Germany, Edenkoben’s vineyards spread up to and around the town. It also has flowering fruit trees, to include beautiful almond trees with dreamy, cloud-like blossoms in the spring, and flowers abounding in fields, small gardens, and in the window boxes which adorn almost every house here.

That is why the Fassbodentour 5  bike trail was such a delight. A relatively short circuit trail, it provided ample opportunity to see all the above, and traverse charming little wine villages surrounding Edenkoben, on a trail that was mostly on dedicated bike path, and with only a few inclines along the way.

 

Garden Paradise Edenkoben
Garden Paradise Edenkoben

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Germany, Wines

Wine Notes: Suedliche Weinstrasse

 

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.

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Biking, Germany, Nutshell

Fassbodentour 5: Trail in a Nutshell

Trail Name: Fassbodentour 5 (“Cask-Land” tour 5)

Trail Type: Short distance bicycle circuit; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, but the route itself is not always marked.

Length: Total: 32 kilometers/20 miles

Convenient to: Landau, Germany

Marking: Square form with a green background and white designs of a cask and bicycle, displaying a “5”

Signage Fassboden 5
Signage Fassboden 5

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Hiking, Italy

A Ring Around Verdiso

I love sparkling wine, so a trip to the land of Prosecco in northeastern Italy was perhaps inevitable. This circuit hike focused on a component of the mix that can constitute a Prosecco cuvee, the Verdiso grape. The village where it began and ended, Combai, is a real cheerleader for this varietal: having fought to gain IGT status for its wines made exclusively from this grape.

As I approached the village by car through the lovely uplands of the Veneto Region, I noted the extremely high hills Combai was located in. High hills mean great views, and this trail offered many. Even approaching the trailhead from the main square, the view down the valley toward the town of Miane was spectacular.

From Combai: Miane, Follina and Cison
From Combai: Miane, Follina and Cison

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