Middle Rhine (wine-growing region)

The Middle Rhine wine-growing region is a region for quality wine that is designated as a “ specific growing region ” in accordance with Section 3 Paragraph 1 No. 5 of the Wine Act and which largely coincides with the Middle Rhine region . It is located in Rhineland-Palatinate and includes the wine-growing towns of Oberdollendorf , Niederdollendorf , Königswinter and Rhöndorf in North Rhine-Westphalia . The Hessian wine towns from Lorchhausen to Rüdesheim , on the other hand, are part of the Rheingau wine-growing region . With a total vineyard area of ​​467 ha (as of 2016), the Middle Rhine is the second smallest growing area in Germany.

Vineyards on the Bopparder Hamm

The Middle Rhine Wine Queen is elected annually .

geography

Geographical location

Vine slopes and the Middle Rhine from Rheinbrohler Ley

Vineyards near Leutesdorf with a view of the Hammerstein ruins

Vine slopes and Middle Rhine from Hammerstein

The Middle Rhine wine-growing region extends over approx. 110 km from the Nahe near Bingen to the Siebengebirge near Bonn . While on the upper Middle Rhine, from Bingen to Koblenz , mainly the left side of the slope along the Rhine was planted with vines, on the lower Middle Rhine, which extends from Koblenz to the Siebengebirge, mainly the right bank is planted. The right bank of the Rhine between Lorchhausen and Rüdesheim lies in Hesse and is part of the Rheingau wine-growing region . The wine-growing region has three focal points: in the south around Bacharach / Oberwesel , in the middle the Bopparder Hamm, in the north around Leutesdorf / Hammerstein. The vineyards in the Lahn valley around Weinähr are also part of the Middle Rhine .

climate

The Middle Rhine has a moderate climate , which means that there are a relatively large number of sunny days without the heat or temperatures that are too low getting out of hand. In the months of June to August it rains sufficiently, at least as far as the growing conditions for the wine are concerned, an average of 570 mm. The water surface of the Rhine and the soils inclined towards the sun store heat energy during the day, which they release again after sunset, so that excessive temperature fluctuations are avoided. The steep slopes of the valley ensure that cold air is quickly drained off in the morning. It so happens that the annual average temperature of 9.3 ° C is.

Floors

In addition to the climate, the nature of the soil is one of the main criteria for the characteristics of a wine. The soils are responsible for the characteristics and thus often also for the distinctiveness of the plant. On the Middle Rhine, slate and greywacke weathered soils dominate the landscape, which store heat during the day. In the north the soils are of volcanic origin. Pumice and tuff , but also loess islands , clay and Rhine pebble soils can be found.

history

Viticulture was brought about by the Romans. At that time, viticulture came from the Moselle to the basin landscape between Koblenz and Neuwied . There it was first operated in flat vineyards, which is proven by archaeological finds in the Miesenheim district near Andernach. In the 4th century the Roman fort Baudobriga was built on the Roman Rhine Valley Road . Venantius Fortunatus , who lived in Metz at the court of King Sigibert I , reports in his poem De navigio suo ("About his ship's journey") from the year 588 of a trip down the Moselle to Andernach and Leutesdorf with the young Merovingian king Childebert II. (570-595).

“Quickly up to the walls of Andernach's fortress I then drive close, carried on by the boat. If the vines stand in spacious rows on the hills over there, Acker stretches fruitfully to the other shore. "

Bushy vineyard terraces

After the Romans left, the city of Boppard was first mentioned in a document in 643 in the early Middle Ages. Boppard was the Frankish royal court and administrative center of the Boppard Empire . The documents from the Merovingian and Carolingian times contain evidence of viticulture in Rheinbrohl (approx. 650), Remagen (754) and Kestert (768). The first vineyards were laid out in flat areas near the shore.

However, viticulture did not develop southwards from the Moselle until the Middle Ages , so according to Boppard, viticulture in Oberwesel is only documented from 966, then from 1019 in Bacharach and in 1135 for the first time in Trechtingshausen. This development took place in four phases from the 11th to the end of the 14th century.

The planted vineyards on the Middle Rhine have continuously decreased in the last hundred years due to the difficult and labor-intensive steep-slope viticulture, while around 1900 there were still around 2200 hectares planted there are currently 467, but stabilization has been evident since the turn of the millennium.

Vineyards

One of the top locations on the Middle Rhine, the Oelsberg north of Oberwesel, organically managed by the Dr. Coarse and tangible through the "Oelsberg-Steig" hiking trail.

The area is divided into two areas , eleven major locations and 111 individual locations .

The major locations are (from south to north):

Loreley area (Rhineland-Palatinate)

1. Reichenstein Castle , lead municipality Oberheimbach , named after Reichenstein Castle
2. Stahleck Castle , lead community of Bacharach , named after Stahleck Castle
3. Herrenberg , leading community of Kaub
4. Schönburg Palace , leading municipality in Oberwesel , named after Schönburg Palace
5. Lorelei rock , Leitgemeinde Sankt Goar , named for the Loreley
6. Rheinfels Castle , lead community of St. Goar , named after Rheinfels Castle
7. Gedeonseck , lead municipality of Boppard , named after the Gedeonseck
8. Marksburg , leading municipality of Koblenz , named after the Marksburg
9. Lahntal , leading community of Obernhof , named after the Lahn valley
10. Hammerstein Castle , lead community Hammerstein , named after Hammerstein Castle

Siebengebirge area (North Rhine-Westphalia)

1. Petersberg , lead municipality Königswinter , named after the Petersberg in the Siebengebirge

Well-known individual layers are:

Bacharach rooster

Bacharach post

Bacharach Wolf Cave

Bopparder Hamm (Feuerlay, Mandelstein and others)

Oberwesel Mount of Olives

Grape varieties

Old Riesling vines in the Bacharach location, Kloster Fürstental

Around 85% of the vineyard area is planted with white grape varieties.

Mainly is Riesling grown (about 67.2% of the vineyard), along with, among others, Pinot Noir (9.9%), Müller-Thurgau or Rivaner (4.5%), Pinot Blanc (4.3%), Pinot Gris (3 , 5%) and Dornfelder (2.5%).

Leading grape varieties in the Middle Rhine region (as of 2017)
variety	colour	synonym	Surface (%)	Area (ha)
1. Riesling	White		67.2	302
2. Pinot Noir	red	Pinot Noir	9.9	45
3. Müller-Thurgau	White	Rivaner	4.5	20th
4. White Burgundy	White	Pinot Blanc	4.3	19th
5. Pinot Gris	White	Marginal lands	3.5	16
6. Dornfelder	red		2.5	11
7. Kerner	White		1.4	6th
8. Blue Portuguese	red		1.0	4th
9. Scheurebe	White		1.0	4th
10th Regent	red		0.6	3
11. Chardonnay	White		0.6	3

Approved white grape varieties

Albalonga Arnsburger Auxerrois Bacchus Bronner Chardonnay Ehrenbreitsteiner Ehrenfelser Elbling Faberrebe Boulder Freer Formerly Malingre Yellow muscatel Gewürztraminer

Gold Riesling Pinot Gris Gutedel Hibernal Holder Huxelrebe Johanniter jewel Chancellor Kerner Kernling Mariensteiner Merzling Morio nutmeg Müller-Thurgau (Rivaner)

Nutmeg Ottonel Noble Optima Orion Ortega Osteiner pearl Phoenix Principal Sprinkler Reichensteiner Rieslaner Riesling Sauvignon Blanc Scheurebe

Schoenburger Septimer Winning vine Silcher Silvaner Sirius Staufer White Burgundy Flavoring

Grapes of the red Pinot Noir grape variety

Approved red grape varieties

Acolon Blue burger Cabernet Mitos Cabernet Sauvignon Dakapo Opaque red Dominatrix

Dornfelder Dark fields Pinot Noir Hegel Helfensteiner Herald vine Lemberger

Merlot Hall Portuguese regent rondo Rotberger Black Riesling

Pinot Noir St. Laurent Dove black Trollinger Zweigelt

Source: Taschenbuch der Weinsorten , Fachverlag Fraund

Wineries

Viticulture on the Middle Rhine is dominated by mostly small private wineries, cultivation and expansion of the wine are usually in one hand. The wines are often only available directly from the winemaker. There are a total of around 150 wine-growing businesses on the Middle Rhine, a third of which have an affiliated wine and dining establishment. For small part-time or after-work vintners for whom self-marketing is not worthwhile, there is only one cooperative where they can deliver their grapes , the “Loreley” Bornich wine cooperative (as of June 2014).

A total of 22 winemakers from the growing area have come together to form the Mittelrhein Riesling Charter . In addition to the joint marketing of three different types of profile wine ( Handstreich , Felsenspiel and Meisterstück ) exclusively from the Riesling grape variety, a charter fund is also to support measures to preserve the cultural landscape of the Middle Rhine.

The Leutesdorf and Hammerstein winegrowers have come together under the term Weinsteigwinzer , based on the Rheinsteig long-distance hiking trail that passes here . The region is marketed for tourism under the heading "Romantic Rhine".

The following winegrowers from the Middle Rhine region are members of the Association of German Predicate and Quality Wineries (VDP for short):

• Bastian winery , Bacharach
• Toni Jost Winery - Hahnenhof , Bacharach
• Lanius-Knab winery , Oberwesel
• Matthias Müller winery , Spay
• Ratzenberger winery , Bacharach

literature

• Carsten Sebastian Henn : Henn's wine guide Middle Rhine. Emmons, Cologne 2005.
• Dieter Braatz, Ulrich Sauter, Ingo Swoboda, Hendrik Holler: Wine Atlas Germany . 1st edition. Hallwag, Munich, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8338-0638-4 .
• Stuart Pigott , Andreas Durst, Ursula Heinzelmann, Chandra Kurt , Manfred Lüer, Stephan Reinhardt: Wine speaks German . 1st edition. Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-502-19000-4 .
• Jancis Robinson : The Oxford Wine Lexicon . Hallwag, Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-8338-0691-9 .
• André Dominé (Ed.): Wine . Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2765-6 .

Web links

• Information on the topic. Service Center Rural Areas (DLR)
• ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: yield and stock management in terraced and steep slopes "Upper Middle Rhine Valley" ) (PDF; 1.60 MB)
• Information about the wine-growing area

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andreas Fasel: Viticulture is flourishing in North Rhine-Westphalia thanks to climate change . June 25, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed July 16, 2019]).
2. ↑ German Wine Institute: Statistics 2017/2018. (PDF) German wine ; accessed on February 20, 2018.
3. ↑ Venantius Fortunatus, Carmen X 9 (ed. Friedrich Leo , MGH Auctores Antiquissimi 4.1, Berlin 1881, pp. 242–244 ), here verses 63–67 (ed. Leo p. 243). German translation and extensive commentary by Paul Dräger : Venantius Fortunatus' two Moselle trips (carmina 6.8 and 10.9). In: Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch , Volume 39, Trier 1999, pp. 67-88, here especially pp. 81 and 83-87.
4. ↑ Deutsches Weininstitut - table location register Middle Rhine ( Memento from May 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 152 kB)
5. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Planted vineyards 2017 . Mainz 2018 ( Vineyard area of ​​wine grapes 1999-2017 according to grape varieties, growing areas and areas [PDF]).
6. ↑ Leaflet Viticulture 2012 ( Memento from June 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 773 kB). State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
7. ^ Ahr and Middle Rhine. A wine guide. Busche Wine Tour, Dortmund 2011, ISBN 978-3-89764-252-2 , p. 17.
8. ^ Middle Rhine wine: cooperatives
9. ↑ Middle Rhine Riesling Charter
10. ↑ Romantic Rhine . Rhineland-Palatinate Tourism website; Retrieved November 6, 2013.