Landmarks of Wine Culture

The cradle of wine-growers' cooperatives lies in Mayschoss in the Ahr River Valley. It was here that 18 vintners made wine history when they founded the world's first wine-growers' cooperative on 20 December 1868.

“Anyone who thinks wine anew also thinks architecture anew.” Architect Hans-Jürgen Mertens from Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler followed this principle with the new tasting room of the Weingut Jean Stodden.

One of the smallest but finest winegrowing regions in Germany is the Ahr. Wine has been grown in the Ahr valley since Roman times. Today, red wine varieties in particular, such as Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Frühburgunder thrive on the steep, often terraced and perfectly exposed sites, and produce high-quality wines.

Marienthal, the oldest monastery in the Ahr River Valley, was founded in 1137 near Dernau. In its heyday, it was run by Augustinian nuns, whose life was anything but easy.

In the Kaiserstuhl region, one may initially assume it’s volcanic rock. But since the Ice Age, there have also been layers of loess, up to 30 metres thick, deposited. Loess of this thickness is found almost exclusively here in this area. Loess is an aeolian sediment that was brought here by the wind.

Time and again, German viticulture has produced influential personalities who have played a defining role in its development. Many names are only familiar to a few today, while their innovations or discoveries are often taken for granted and not given much thought.

The four great wine casks of Heidelberg castle are legendary and they draw flocks of tourists every year, even though there’s now only one remaining cask on display.

Since July 2016, the Vineum Bodensee has enriched the cultural offering of the town. The 400-year old historic building, which has been elaborately and lovingly converted into a museum for the senses, now offers an interactive and sensory tour of the cultural history of wine.

In Ihringen, Kaiserstuhl, vines grow on the sloping remains of a 15-million-old, extinct volcano. Winklerberg has everything an old volcano can offer: lava flows, porous lava chunks (pumice) and agglomerates from eruptions. All part of the 'volcanic wine' that has been produced here since 962.

Germany's southernmost vineyards are cultivated on Reichenau, an island in Lake Constance, now a World Heritage Site. Today, it is better known as the "vegetable island", but for centuries, viticulture was the economic basis of the island’s farmers.

The warm reddish brown Weingut Abril in Bischoffingen, stands out against the rich green of the surrounding vineyards. The upper floors of this futuristic winery blend into the hillside of Enselberg, one of the top locations in the Kaiserstuhl region.

April 6, 1659 was a milestone in the history of the Franconian village of Castell: Johann Georg Körner had new vines planted at the foot of the Schlossberg. Not just any vines, but rather “25 Austrian cuttings”, namely Silvaner.