Volkacher councilor

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The Ratsherr vineyard north of Volkach's old town

Volkacher Ratsherr (also driver councilor ) is one of the most famous vineyards in the Franconian wine- growing region . It is located in the district of Volkach and its district of Fahr in the Lower Franconian district of Kitzingen .

Geographical location and geology

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The vineyards at the driver Mönchberg
The section east of Volkach

The vineyard area occupies an elongated area north of the city of Volkach ( 49 ° 52 ′ 33.4 ″  N , 10 ° 13 ′ 3 ″  E ). It stretches along the district road KT 34 in the direction of Fahr, in whose area the wine area is also called councilor ( 49 ° 52 '33.2 "  N , 10 ° 10' 36.2"  E ). The vineyard area frames the pilgrimage church Maria im Weingarten and is only interrupted by a forest area at the height of the so-called Eschbachgraben . The mountains Kirchberg and Mönchberg are planted with vines. Another section of the vineyard ( 49 ° 51 ′ 46.3 ″  N , 10 ° 14 ′ 48.2 ″  E ) can be found in the east of Volkach.

The surface of the wine Ratsherrn occupies an area of about 185 ha and is part of the major site Volkacher Kirchberg in the range Volkacher Main loop . The vineyards are mostly oriented at an angle of 45% to the south, only the eastern section was laid out towards the south-west. The protected location leads to a low amount of precipitation, but there is a warm microclimate there. The skeletal soil consists of shell limestone with a sandy loam layer. There is Müller-Thurgau , Sylvaner , Kerner and Bacchus grown.

history

location

The history of Volkach is closely linked to viticulture. "Vinetis campis" (vineyards) are already mentioned in the document of 906, in which the later city was first mentioned. The Fulda Monastery , which Volkach acquired, continued to promote viticulture. It is likely, however, that the wine was brought to the region by the Franconian settlers as early as the 7th century . Wine was grown for personal use and traded with it.

The location name for the vineyards between Obervolkach and Fahr along the Main appeared for the first time in 1224. The Counts of Castell , now come in Volkach to influence, liberated all the vineyards of the Cistercian monastery Ebrach from Bailiwick law , however, retained this right in the vineyard Huswerth still faces. The southern exposure in the Main Valley made the vineyards there particularly valuable.

Volkach became a town in the 13th century. One factor in this appreciation was the wine trade, which made a city organization necessary. The villages in the vicinity needed a central market to trade the wine. Wine was also an important part of medieval taxation and in Volkach the wineries and the wine tithing were collected from the market .

The wineries swear the oath to the Volkach mayor. Volkacher Salbuch folio 418v

The Volkach city constitution determined several citizens to be the eicher, they should check the filling height of the wine barrels , and as a sight to test the quality of the wine. These safety measures were often of no avail because early modern cultivation methods were still heavily dependent on the weather. So over the centuries, good and bad wine years alternated. Especially during the so-called Little Ice Age in the 17th century, the population suffered from crop failures.

In the 18th century, some winemaking families, especially the Schelf and the Balbus , made wealth through the wine trade. With the secularization and the dissolution of the Hochstift Würzburg in the course of the reorganization of Europe by Napoleon, there was also a profound crisis in viticulture in Volkach. The appearance of phylloxera in the second half of the 19th century almost completely destroyed the centuries-old wine-growing landscape around Volkach. In 1940 only 43 ha of 1830 233 ha of vineyards remained.

At the same time, the winemakers began to organize in so-called cooperatives in order to make the wine trade more effective. However, these efforts, along with better fertilizers, only bore fruit after World War II . In the meantime, tourism on the Mainschleife had become an important economic factor and the winemakers established the Franconian Wine Festival in Volkach , which quickly became the largest in the growing area.

In 1971 the ten or more Volkach vineyards, including the Volkacher Kirchberg, and the almost as many driver locations were combined to form a councilor. In dialect poetry , the councilor was often the subject . Hanns Rupp mentioned the vineyard as “a piece of Elysium ”, but also stated that “ar it and lead aristocrat”. Today the figure of the councilor, embodied by an actor, is a symbol for the Volkacher Mainschleife and represents the wine served at the Volkacher Weinfest.

Origin of name

The origin of the name Ratsherr goes back to events that are said to have taken place in the Thirty Years War . The Protestant Swedes camped in front of the city and threatened the residents with the capture and sacking of Volkach. However, the city should be spared if one of the councilors would drink with the leader of the Swedes and then make his lover happy. The Volkachers chose a hard-drinking man from the Gasthof zur Schwane and put councilor's clothes on him. The man won the bet and the Swedes withdrew.

Wineries (selection)

Several renowned wineries now own the Volkach councilor's vines. In addition to a few locally recognized businesses, there are also a number of nationally known winegrowers and excellent goods in Volkach and Fahr:

Vineyards of the "councilor" behind the church Maria im Weingarten on Volkacher Kirchberg
  • Bruno Bienert winery, Volkach
  • Andreas Braun winery, Volkach
  • Kirch winery, Fahr
  • Reinhard Kirch winery, Fahr
  • Kilian Krapf winery, Fahr
  • Leo Langer winery, Volkach
  • Karl Müller winery, Volkach
  • Max Müller I winery , Volkach
  • Rommert winery, Volkach
  • Rose winery, Volkach
  • Winemaker Sommerach , Sommerach
  • Zur Schwane winery , Volkach

The councilor was classified as the 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.
  • Gerhard Egert: Comments on Volkacher viticulture in the 19th century . In: Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Volkach. 906-2006 . Volkach 2006. pp. 302-305.
  • Gerhard Egert: Viticulture and Weather in Volkach . In: Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Volkach. 906-2006 . Volkach 2006. pp. 299-301.
  • Ute Feuerbach: The wine . In: Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Volkach. 906-2006 . Volkach 2006. pp. 281-293.
  • Barbara Holtz: The vineyard names in the Kitzingen district . In: Andreas Pampuch (Hrsg.): Nature and landscape of the district of Kitzingen II. Volume . Kitzingen 1981. pp. 124-160.
  • Franz Pfrang: The history of viticulture on the Main loop . In: Ute Feuerbach (Ed.): Our Main Loop. 1978-1992 . Volkach 2008. pp. 23-28.
  • Hanns Rupp: The Volkier "councilor" . In: Stadtverwaltung Volkach am Main (ed.): Volkach am Main. 1258-1958 . Volkach 1958. p. 82.

Web links

Commons : Volkacher Ratsherr  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Weinlage-Info: Ratsherr , accessed on June 20, 2018.
  2. ↑ Vineyard information: Ratsherr driver , accessed on June 20, 2018.
  3. ^ Bauer, Hans: District of Kitzingen . P. 191.
  4. ↑ Feuerbach, Ute: The wine . P. 283.
  5. ↑ Egert, Gerhard: Viticulture and Weather in Volkach . P. 300.
  6. ↑ Feuerbach, Ute: The wine . P. 286.
  7. ^ Pfrang, Franz: History of viticulture on the Main loop . P. 28.
  8. ↑ See: Egert, Gerhard: Comments on Volkacher viticulture in the 19th century .
  9. ↑ Holtz, Barbara: The vineyard names in the district of Kitzingen . P. 129 f.
  10. ↑ Rupp, Hanns: The Volkier "Ratsherr" . P. 82.
  11. ↑ VDP-Franken: Lagentexte , PDF file, p. 12, accessed on June 20, 2018.
  12. ↑ Weingut-Bienert: Homepage , accessed on June 20, 2018.
  13. ↑ Weinbau-Krapf: Weine , accessed on June 21, 2018.
  14. ↑ Frankenweingut: Homepage , accessed on June 20, 2018.
  15. ↑ Max Müller I: Homepage , accessed on June 20, 2018.
  16. ↑ Weingut-Roemmert: Homepage , accessed on June 20, 2018.