The northerly winemaking regions of Germany straddle the 50th parallel and are amongst the world’s coolest vineyards.
Nonetheless, vine cultivation dates to the ancient world—wild vines had been growing on the upper Rhine previously, but Vitis vinifera arrived in Germany with the Romans. Near the end of the 3rd century, Emperor Probus overturned Domitian’s 92 CE ban on new vineyard plantings, and viticulture followed the Romans into provinces north of the Alps. By the fourth century winemaking was definitively established along the steep slopes of the Mosel River. Charlemagne, the legendary beard-stained lover of wine—whose newly minted Carolingian calendar replaced the Roman October with Windume-Manoth, “the month of the vintage”—introduced vine cultivation east of the Rhine River in the late eighth century. During the Middle Ages, the Church was instrumental in shepherding the development of vineyards, and many of Germany’s modern einzellagen (vineyards) owe their nomenclature to monastic influence. As in France, the Church essentially operated its own feudal economy: it collected a tithe, or tax, from the parishioners who worked the vineyards, and wine made a suitable substitute for cash. The Cistercians of Burgundy founded the famous Kloster Eberbach monastery in the Rheingau in 1136, where they amassed the largest vineyard holdings in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages, with over 700 acres of vines. The walled Steinberg vineyard, an ortsteil within the commune of Hattenheim, was the monks’ centerpiece and remains wholly intact today—an alleinbesitz (monopole) of Kloster Eberbach for over eight centuries
Possible Correction: A number of sources I have reviewed show Öchsle correctly spelled as Oechsle (Oxford Companion to Wine, New Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia--Per Ferdinand Oechsle).
Hey Trevor! Both spellings are interchangeable. Öchsle is the German spelling of it whereas Oechsle is the anglicized version.
Hey Trevor! The Oechsle/Öchsle scale begins when a liquid is heavier than water. The table on this page references the German national standards of each Prädikat, yet each region has its own specific classification scale. I would recommend clicking here to learn more about the ranges for each style of wine at the national level.
Thanks Jonathan! I found this confusing because it seems authors pick and choose when to use anglicized spellings and when not. I suppose in my mind, I think the correct spelling would be whatever was the actual spelling used for Ferdinand's last name on his birth certificate... that, I suppose, I may never know!One other item:In Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia's most recent edition, the range of Oechsle/Öchsle is indicated to begin at 67 degrees minimum, but the information is conflicting. Are the ranges for Öchsle indicated in this guide the most common ranges used by area of origin? This information can be found in Sotheby's pg. 441. Thank you for all that you do.