2018 Sommerach Katzenkopf Traminer late harvest (Spaetlese), Franconia/Franken, Germany
The German wine growing region of Franconia used to be divided into the three areas of Maindreieck, Mainviereck and Steigerwald with 23 large vineyards and 216 individual vineyards. In November 2011, the members of the Franconian Winegrowers' Association adopted a new regulation. The three old areas will be replaced by 12 much smaller ones. These will also replace the 23 large sites in the medium to long term. The old areas once played a role in the predominant marketing of Franconian table wine, which they had lost for some time. Before this conversion, the following description applied to the Maindreieck area:
By far the largest...
The cultivation area is located on the northern edge of the state of Bavaria in Germany and is crossed by the Main River in a large W shape. A special feature is that the Bavarian vineyards on Lake Constance around Lindau belong to the Württemberg growing region. The vineyards cover 6,130 hectares of vineyard area, most of which extend between Aschaffenburg and Schweinfurt. All vineyards are planted on south-facing valley slopes on the banks of the Main or in side valleys of its tributaries. It is an ancient wine-growing region, as evidenced by a deed of donation from the year 777 to the monastery of Fulda, to which the royal estate...
Germany, or rather the area that belongs to it today, has a wine culture that is over two thousand years old. But imported wine was already being drunk before that, as evidenced by a Greek wine bottle made of clay dating from around 400 BC found in a Celtic tomb. The oldest vineyards were located on the banks of the Rhine, Neckar and Moselle. These rivers with their elongated valleys, as well as their tributaries, are still the classic growing areas today. Viticulture was established by the colonization of the Greeks in Gaul and then brought to perfection by the Roman culture. The conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) brought Roman viticulture from...
The exact origin of the white grape variety is uncertain; it could originate from Germany, France or the Czech Republic (Moravia). The different varieties differ in berry colour, aroma, leaf shape and grape size, as well as in vigour, yield and susceptibility to disease, but they have almost the same DNA profile with minor differences. They are therefore considered as a single grape variety, although they are very much listed separately as distinct varieties in many grape variety catalogues. There are the following three main varieties:
Savagnin Blanc (France) or Gelber Traminer, Weißer...
