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.)
Increasingly, wine regions, especially those growing iconic grape varietals, sponsor varietal wine walking trails. Riesling is an especially important varietal in the Rhine River Valley. When I heard of one such trail in the wine region of Baden, I decided to visit.
The Riesling Weg (Trail) is located in the village of Eisental. In this part of the Baden wine region, the Ortenau, Riesling is the single-most cultivated varietal. Riesling can be a challenge to grow, given the lack of sunshine some years, and the steep slopes required to ensure maximal sun exposure when there is any. However, this Riesling trail was not challenging, and is easy enough for the whole family to enjoy.
First, there was the village. Small, compact, and nestled in a hollow, it was an oasis of tranquility. The old nucleus of the village, set around the church and town hall (Rathaus), was untouched by tourism – So laid back that it has only one eatery in the center.
Trail Name: Rieslingweg
Trail Type: Short distance circuit trail; well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, very good marking on the trail
Length:
Total – 7.1 kilometers/4.4 miles
Convenient to: Baden-Baden, Germany
Marking: Green grapes with a green leaf on a white (sometimes yellow) background
While it might not be true wine, monkeys do consume, quite deliberately, fermented fruit juice found in the wild.
A theme of monkeys and wine drew me to a hike in the Affental, not far from Baden-Baden, Germany. A possible translation of Affen-tal, is Monkey Valley. Wine from this area is duly bottled with a monkey embossing the front of the bottle. I had often wondered about this somewhat incongruous mascot, and a visit to the local cooperative, Affentaler Winzer, provided an opportunity to taste the local wines, and learn more about the viticultural history and practices of the area. The short hike gave me an opportunity to wander through the vineyards of Affental.
Trail Name: Rotweinpfad
Trail Type: Short distance circuit trail; well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, good marking on the trail.
Length:
Total – 3.8 kilometers/2.3 miles
Convenient to: Baden-Baden, Germany
Marking:
Purple grapes with a green leaves on a white (or yellow) background
Trail Name: Wein-Barock
Trail Type: Mid-distance circuit trail; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, but the marking along the route, while excellent, is not trail specific. (See the Itinerary below for specific itinerary points.)
Length: total: 10 kilometers/ 6 miles
Convenient to: Konstanz, and Friedrichshafen, Germany
Marking:
Yellow rectangular signs with black lettering, indicating direction to major itinerary points. (Not trail specific)
When the itinerant musicians of Mackenbach, in the Pfalz, crested the ridge from the northwest, they beheld the town of Freinsheim below. They announced their arrival with lively music, letting the town know they had arrived. Over the next couple of days, they would play, for coins, wine and food. Freinsheim, one of the northern most wine villages on the Deutsche Weinstrasse, has named this section of vineyard the “Musikanten-Buckel”, or the hump of hill where the musicians began to play. Freinsheim is also one of many villages along the Deutsche Weinstrasse that has several festivals throughout the year. Two of them involve “wine wandering”, which is how I came be in the village.
Traditionally, the January wine wandering trail follows mostly along an established trail called the Musikantenbuckel Wanderweg. But every year, on the last weekend of January, the trail is identified as the Rotweinwanderung (Red wine wandering). So, on a cold, dark and grey winter afternoon, I, and hundreds of other people, dressed warmly, with sturdy waterproof boots, set off along the trail, which starts in the village.
