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
The Danube originates in the black forest of Germany and flows south east until it empties into the black sea. Wagram is the first appellation west of Vienna along the danube. The author of the text was probably stating this in such a way as this was the direction that trade would go. The Danube notoriously flows the "wrong way" for trade and travel.
Study group debate whipped up over "Wagram follows the course of the Danube as it passes out of Vienna". The wording seems to imply the river is flowing northwest, rather than "follows the course of the Danube as it flows toward Vienna" or something equivalent. Or does Wagram technically exist in an isolated pocket downriver from Vienna as well? Doesn't seem to be the case on any maps I can find. Thanks for the clarification!
I am confused by the paragraph below:
"While a site may be recognized by both the German Wine Law and the VDP, the VDP’s demarcation is often much narrower, representing a return to pre-1971 vineyard boundaries. For example, the 1971 law established the area of the Saarburger Rausch vineyard in the Mosel anbaugebiet at 16 hectares, but only 8 hectares are classified as Erste Lage. Rüdesheimer Berg Roseneck in the Rheingau includes over 26 hectares according to the law, but a mere 6.9 hectares qualifies for the more severe Erste Lage designation."
According to the Compendium and VDP.Vineyard.Online Saarburger Rausch is 24.09 ha (not 16 ha all GL) Is Rausch vineyard divided by 16ha Grosse Lage and 8ha Erste Lage? Same for Rudesheimer Berg Roseneck (27ha in compendium; 5.65ha VDP) all Grosse Lage?
There are not currently any Erste Lage vineyards in the Rheingau.
In the Austrian section on Styria, there is a typo; not sure if this has been addressed yet in the comments
"There are three subregions: Südsteiermark, Weststeiermark, and and Südoststeiermark, also known as Vulkanland Steiermark."
"All three levels of quality share a maximum yield of 9,000 kg/ha (67.5 hl/ha)".
Landwein is 75 hl as per austrianwine.com www.austrianwine.com/.../