Wine Country of Rheinhessen, Germany

A unique mix - Rheinhessen has something for every taste, not least its wines. Young, ambitious wine makers in Germany's largest wine-making region are using a selection of grape varieties, each of which reflects the Rheinhessen "terroir". The wines range from an unpretentious, refreshing everyday tipple to great, internationally acclaimed vintages.

The wine makers in this extremely diverse region are known for their creativity. Innovative Rheinhessen products, such as the RS brand of Rheinhessen Silvaner wines, the "Selection Rheinhessen" quality mark and the local sekts, single-variety sparkling wines made using the traditional bottle-fermentation method, have breathed new life into the German wine market. Silvaner is one of the star varieties here, but there are also acclaimed Riesling estates producing excellent wines full of fine fruit flavours. Both white and red Burgundy-type grape varieties are becoming more popular here and produce wines of an equally high quality.

Rheinhessen - an explorer's paradise
A holiday in Rheinhessen is guaranteed to include culinary delights. For example, you can enjoy a "vineyard to vineyard" cycle tour, stopping off at the flower-bedecked Mediterranean-style courtyards along the way for a hearty winegrower's snack or to enjoy a wine tasting with a cellar tour in the evening.

In Rheinhessen people like to have fun all year round, beginning with the Mainz carnival and its Rose Monday procession just before Lent. At the end of August, there's the Backfischfest in Worms, the largest wine festival and fair on the Rhine. Ingelheim hosts a red wine festival at the end of September. Each village in the region also has its own fair and usually a wine festival too.

Discover nature in Rheinhessen: gardens, herbs and winegrowing
Rheinhessen, Germany's largest winegrowing area, is a landscape of gentle, vineyard-clad hills stretching from the Rhine to the north Palatinate foothills, also known as Rheinhessen Switzerland.

The Rhine Terraces Trail and the Rhine Hill Route go upriver towards Mainz, past Oppenheim - where visitors can look around Gothic St. Katharine's Church and the German Museum of Winegrowing - and Nierstein, Nackenheim (birthplace of writer Karl Zuckmayer) and Bodenheim, all of which produce fine wines.

Apart from its wines, Rheinhessen Switzerland's treasures include wild herbs, some now quite rare, which grow freely in its soil and climate. There are walks and cycling tours on a herb theme escorted by a knowledgeable herbalist who can tell you all kinds of interesting, little-known facts about the medicinal and culinary uses of plants including dandelions and stinging nettles. At dinner the wines of Rheinhessen Switzerland will reveal themselves as the perfect complement to the fine flavours of wild and kitchen-garden herbs. These culinary herb walks are offered as day programmes for groups. For visitors with more time to spare, wineries and herb farms also offer overnight accommodation.

On a holiday at a winery visitors can take a tour of the vineyard with the winegrower, discover fascinating facts about winegrowing and enjoy wine tasting in the wine cellar.

Rheinhessen - Romans, castles, wines
Romans, castles and wines have all significantly influenced this region whose history goes back to the days of Antiquity.

The Romans, the first to cultivate wine here, planted the first vineyards in the Wonnegau region in around 100 AD. After 774 King Charlemagne revived the art of winegrowing by enacting a number of new laws. For instance, he outlawed the storage of wines in leather skins and the old method of treading the grapes, replacing them with wooden wine presses and wooden wine barrels. During the medieval period, Rheinhessen's vineyards were worked by numerous guilds who paid tithes to the prince bishops of Mainz. By the 16th century, Liebfraumilch, Niersteiner and Oppenheimer were established names.

Rheinhessen: Calling all connoisseurs!
In recent years, innovative, dedicated wine makers have built up the reputation of Rheinhessen wines as excellent German wines around the world. They have done their bit to increasing the popularity of German red wine in the wine region of Rheinhessen, where it was traditionally rather looked down on.

The star of the reds is Dornfelder with its juicy, red-fruit flavour, but Portugieser and Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) and the old variety of St. Laurent are gaining in importance. No doubt, the long partnership between the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the French region of Burgundy has played its part in the fact that today the area planted with Burgundy grape varieties is three times larger than it was twenty years ago. Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc Burgundy wines matured in oak barrels always sweep the board at international wine competitions.

The largest proportion of the cultivation area is planted with Müller-Thurgau vines, followed by Silvaner, Dornfelder and Riesling.

Rheinhessen's "cow chapels" are fascinating; former cow byres built with a vaulted roof to reduce the risk of fire, they are now used as cosy inns and vintner's taverns and also as venues for cultural events.

The people of Rheinhessen are also expert beer brewers and accompany the beer with traditional hearty food, such as "Backeskartoffel" (pommes boulangères) or "Spundekäs", a spicy cream cheese.