Sommeracher cat's head

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The location of the Sommeracher Katzenkopf above the village

The so-called Sommeracher Katzenkopf is one of the most famous vineyards in the Franconian region . It is located in the district of Sommerach in the Kitzingen district .

Geographical location and geology

The vineyard is on the so-called wine island near the community of Sommerach. It takes large parts of the 287  m above sea level. NHN high Kreuzberg, which dominates the island. There are also vineyards on the southern part of the smaller Engelberg. The Nordheim vineyards of Vögelein and Kreuzberg begin further north . The village of Sommerach itself is located further south. The Sommeracher Katzenkopf covers an area of ​​around 175 hectares and is partly located in the Volkacher Kirchberg and Sommeracher Engelsberg areas , both of which are part of the Volkacher Mainschleife area.

The vineyard is oriented to the south-south-east and south-west and was established on the soils of the upper shell limestone and the Lettenkeuper . At the same time, vineyards that grow on river sand and drift sand are also included in the cat's head . The large differences in terroir also explain the many different grape varieties that are grown here. While Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Traminer and Riesling were still represented in 1993, the variety is now limited to Silvaner and Riesling , and to a lesser extent also Pinot Blanc and Pinot Noir.

history

location

When Sommerach was first mentioned in 1084, the village was associated with vineyards in its area. At the Mainschleife , however, vineyards were first mentioned in documents in 906, which is why it can be assumed that wine was already being grown around Sommerach at that time. The grapevine probably came to the region with the Frankish settlers when they ousted the Celts who settled here in the 7th century.

The Katzenkopf vineyard was first mentioned in the second half of the 17th century. A chronicle from the year 1785 dates the incident to the year 1680. A wine merchant from the imperial city of Nuremberg bought wine from the Sommerach winemaker and councilor Hans Jörg Fegelein. On the barrel was "a carved cat's head" to be seen. In 1797 the Katzenkopf site was counted among the best in the area by the Escherndorf pastor Andreas Friedrich .

After the village master, the Münsterschwarzach monastery , had benefited from the cat's head through the so-called wine tenth throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period , the Sommerach family rose to become independent winemakers after the secularization of 1803. The locations, however, had shrunk considerably due to the inheritance practice of real division . In 1910, 44 vineyards have survived. Between 1956 and 1974, the Sommerach sites were therefore adjusted and consolidated.

Origin of name

There are many legends about the origin of the name Katzenkopf. The most common is about the von Katz lords, who were wealthy in the area as the Nuremberg patrician family . The dialect poet Alois Josef Ruckert from Würzburg recorded a different story that was passed down in the vernacular. Then a woman stopped her husband from drinking wine from a large barrel by placing a stuffed cat on the barrel and he was startled.

A Slavic origin of the name has been suggested in recent literature. The Wends who settled on the Mainschleife named the surrounding mountains after animals, so the mountain "koza", the cat, appeared near Sommerach.

Wineries (selection)

Several renowned wineries now own vines on the slope of the Kreuzberg. In addition to some locally recognized businesses, there are also a number of nationally known winegrowers and excellent goods in Sommerach. The Katzenkopf was classified as first location by the Association of German Predicate and Quality Wineries .

literature

  • Hans Bauer: District of Kitzingen. An art and culture guide . Market wide 1993.
  • Winfried Kraus: Sommerach. New chronicle of the romantic wine village on the Mainschleife . Sommerach 2007.
  • Franz Pfrang: The history of viticulture on the Main loop . In: Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Our Main Loop. 1978-1992 . Volkach 2008. pp. 23-28.
  • Michael Steinbacher: Slavic traces along the Volkacher Mainschleife . In: Yearbook for the district of Kitzingen 2017. Under the spell of the Schwanberg . Dettelbach 2017. pp. 303–323.

Web links

Commons : Sommeracher Katzenkopf  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kraus, Winfried: Sommerach . P. 353.
  2. ↑ Government of Lower Franconia: Vineyards in Bavaria broken down into areas , PDF file, p. 9 f., Accessed on February 19, 2019.
  3. ^ Bauer, Hans: District of Kitzingen . P. 191.
  4. ↑ Vineyard information: Sommeracher Katzenkopf , accessed on October 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Pfrang, Franz: The history of viticulture on the Main loop . P. 23.
  6. ↑ Kraus, Winfried: Sommerach . P. 354.
  7. ↑ Winzer-Sommerach: Sommeracher Katzenkopf , accessed on October 12, 2017.
  8. ↑ Kraus, Winfried: Sommerach . P. 346.
  9. ↑ Kraus, Winfried: Sommerach . P. 355.
  10. ↑ Steinbacher, Michael: Slavic traces along the Volkacher Mainschleife . P. 309.
  11. ↑ Winzer-Sommerach: History , accessed on October 12, 2017.
  12. ^ Richard Östreicher winery, Sommerach. Retrieved October 11, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Weingut-Strobel: Our Wine , accessed on October 12, 2017.
  14. ^ Zehnthof-Weickert: Homepage , accessed on October 12, 2017.
  15. ↑ Weingut-Georg-Zang: Our wines , accessed on October 12, 2017.

Coordinates: 49 ° 50 ′ 6.9 ″  N , 10 ° 11 ′ 42.5 ″  E