The Rhine and some of its tributaries such as the Main, Nahe and Neckar rivers are particularly important in Germany when it comes to viticulture. This is because the majority of German vineyards are located on the sometimes steep slopes of these rivers in 10 (out of 13) directly neighbouring or nearby German wine-growing regions. The importance of the river is also emphasised by the fact that the most important German grape variety Riesling is often called Rheinriesling. Like all bodies of water, the Rhine has a positive effect on viticulture or creates the conditions for it by forming valley slopes. The 1,233 km long river, 857 km of which are in Germany, is formed from two headwaters in the canton of Graubünden in the Swiss Alps.

Sections of the Rhine

After the confluence of the Vorderrhein (77 km) and Hinterrhein (72 km) at the municipality of Tamins-Reichenau, it is called the Alpine Rhine and flows into Lake Constance at the municipality of Hard. After flowing through the Obersee, it is called the Seerhein for the four kilometre section, flows through the Untersee and is now called the Hochrhein after exiting at Stein am Rhein. This forms the border between Switzerland in the south and Germany in the north as far as Basel.

Upper Rhine

The approximately 360 km long section in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basel at the border triangle (Germany, France, Switzerland) and Bingen is known as the Upper Rhine. The Franconian wine-growing region to the east of the river is crossed by the River Main, which flows into the Rhine opposite Mainz, in a large W-shape. To the east of the Upper Rhine, the Baden wine-growing region stretches for 300 kilometres in the Upper Rhine Plain from Lake Constance to Frankfurt am Main. The Neckar, which flows into the Rhine at the old university town of Mannheim, and its tributaries are home to the majority of the vineyards in the Württemberg wine-growing region, which borders Baden to the east.

To the west of the Rhine bend near the municipality of Wiesbaden, the Rheingau wine-growing region lies north of the municipality of Bingen in the form of a narrow strip. Just below it to the west of the Rhine is Germany's largest wine-growing region, Rheinhessen. To the south lies the Palatinate wine-growing region with its easternmost vineyards close to the Rhine. At the bend in the Rhine after Bingen, the approximately 125 km long river Nahe flows into the Rhine, giving its name to the wine-growing region bordering Rheinhessen to the west. The mouth of the Nahe separates the Upper Rhine from the Middle Rhine.

Middle Rhine, Lower Rhine and Rhine-Meuse Delta

The 130 km long section of the Middle Rhine stretches from Bingen and Rüdesheim am Rhein in the south to Bonn-Bad Godesberg in the north. The Moselle, which gave its name to the wine-growing region to the west of the Rhine, flows in at Koblenz. To the north lies the Ahr wine-growing region, also named after a tributary. The picture shows the Rhine bend of the Middle Rhine near the municipalities of Filsen (left) and Boppard (right).

The Middle Rhine wine-growing region is largely identical to the geographical region. The tributaries Lahn, Wied and Sieg can be found on the right bank of the Rhine. The last section from Bonn is called the Lower Rhine (Nederrijn). The extensive Rhine-Meuse Delta, the estuary of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt, whose waters are drained into the North Sea via several estuaries, begins at the Dutch-German border with the division of the Rhine.

Map: Von Ulamm - Rhine map by Daniel Ullrich, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Vorderrhein: By Biovit - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link