What I Learned
Winemaking came comparatively late to the German wine region of Saxony. According to legend, the noble Bishop of Meissen, Benno, was the first to introduce vines to this area around the year 1100. These first vines were supposedly planted near the mount of Meissen, where the castle and cathedral now stand. About 60 years later, wine-making in Meissen was historically documented. While not the northern-most wine region in Germany, it is the eastern-most wine region, being rather close to both the Polish and Czech borders. Here, the wine region’s vineyards follow the course of the Elbe River, as it enters German from the Czech Republic. The majority of the vineyards are on the right bank (eastern side) of the river, on the south and west facing slopes. With only about 500 hectares (about 1250 acres) ranging along about 50 kilometers of the Elbe, it is one of Germany’s smallest designated wine regions.