Landmarks of Wine Culture

The historic crane for loading wine barrels onto boats shipping along the Rhine is not only a symbol of the town Oestrich-Winkel, but also an expression of the importance of Rheingau wine for the marketplace. In 1780 that totaled over 500,000 litres of wine.

This may well be the cradle of viticulture in the Rheingau, since no other building in the area symbolizes centuries of wine making culture like the Monastery of Eberbach near the village of Eltville.

This is legendary ground. It is where the famed rider was heading in 1775, with a delayed message from the Prince-Abbot to begin what was by then a Spätlese - late harvest of the grapes surrounding Schloss Johannisberg. This fateful delay gave birth to a prized delicacy.

The sparkling pleasure of sekt has a long tradition in Mainz and a multi-layered one. Kupferberg, former sparkling wine producers, have seven layers of cellars under their grand Villa overlooking the city.

Abroad, Liebfraumilch used to be the equivalent for German wine in general. The wine and the name have their origin in the Liebfrauenstift vineyard which is situated around the Liebfrauenkirche in Worms.

The “Glöck” is one of the famous sites on the renowned Roter Hang (Red Slope) of Nierstein and is also the oldest named vineyard site in Germany. This is evidenced by a deed of donation from 742 to Charlemagne's uncle.

Bringing new life to old walls was the goal of the Wasem's House of Wine in Ingelheim. The family has succeeded with their modern glass-concrete addition to the heritage-listed ruins of the Cistercian Engelthal convent.

The largest contiguous vineyard area of the Mittelrhein lies within the Rhine region's largest loop: Bopparder Hamm, a vine-clad district of the town of Boppard on the Rhine. The name probably derives from the Latin word hamus, meaning hook or crook, alluding to the S-shaped bend in the river.

This city honors the ancient God of Bacchus in its name. Bacharach took its name, so legend goes, from the Celtic word "Baccaracum" - meaning Baccarus' farm - or from the Latin word "Bacchiara" which stood for the altar of Bacchus.

With a gradient of up to 60%, the Calmont is the steepest sloped vineyard in all of Europe and counted among the steepest classified single sites found anywhere in the world. The sun shines almost horizontally here to the ground.

The Art Nouveau city of Traben-Trarbach is a true landmark for the significance that wine trading once held for the Mosel region. Around 1900, this small city in the middle of the Mosel valley was the most important wine trading city in the world – with the exception of Bordeaux in France.

Proof that the Romans once crushed grapes by foot can be found in an ancient wine press preserved in Piesport, near the Moselschleife (a major bow in the river). It is the biggest Roman wine press north of the Alps.