Trail Name: Rieslingtour (AKA: Weinwanderrundweg 10)
Trail Type: Short distance circuit; much is paved, some hard-packed earth, some stairs: well maintained, but the route itself is only fairly marked.
Length: Total: @8 kilometers/ 5 miles
Convenient to: Bad Duerkheim, Neustadt or Mannheim, Germany
Marking: A “10” in black, on a round white background
The love of wine knows no boundaries, and vines know no political borders. Vintners on both sides of the French-German border in this northeastern-most corner of Alsace tend the land together, owning, or working, parcels on both sides, producing wines, and sharing a growing passion for quality wines. A wine-themed circuit hike here, developed by French and German regional and local tourism authorities, likewise shows a spirit of cooperation. This has produced excellent results, both in wine education, and in an easy, family-friendly hike through an historic French town, a quaint German village, and of course, vineyards.
This hike crosses the border between France and Germany twice. But before there was a border, there were vines. These vineyards, and many others both north and south of the border, belonged to the abbey in Wissembourg, in Alsace. And even though the abbey and the borders (for all practical purposes) have gone, the vines remain. Yet another reminder of the crucial, regional role abbeys and monasteries played in reviving viticulture in these areas after the fall of the Roman Empire.
What I Learned
The vineyards above the German village of Schweigen-Rechtenbach and the French town of Wissembourg have a viticulture history and a wine-making passion in common. Grapes have been cultivated for centuries. The vineyards in this area once all belonged to the Merovingian abbey in Wissembourg. Over time, these have become named, and a circuit trail passes through or by them. They are, from south to north: the Kammerberg, the Raedling, the Strohlenberg and the St. Paul, in France, and the Sonnenberg, in Germany.
Continue reading Wine Notes: Suedliche Weinstrasse and Bas Rhin
Trail Name: Circuit Viticole Transfrontalier (French) / Grenzuberschreitender Rundweg durch die Weinberge (German)
Trail Type: Short distance circuit; almost exclusively paved, well maintained, extremely well marked.
Length: total: 7 kilometers/ 4.3 miles
Convenient to: Karlsruhe and Landau, Germany
Marking: Red circle on white rectangular background
Continue reading Circuit Viticole Transfrontalier: Trail in a Nutshell
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.
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.
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”
