Palatinate (german: Pfalz) is a
German wine
German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...
-growing
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...
(''Weinbaugebiet'') in the area of
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Win ...
,
Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990) ...
in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''). With under cultivation in 2008, the region is the second largest wine region in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
after
Rheinhessen
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (german: Rheinhessen) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland- ...
.
[German Wine Institute: German wine statistics 2009/2010](_blank)
There are about 6,800
vintner
A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes:
*Cooperating with viticulturists
*Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...
s producing around 6.5 million
hectolitre
The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...
s of wine annually.
History
Although wild varieties of the vine were most probably native in the Palatinate region, the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
brought the cultivated vine and winegrowing techniques around 1 A.D. Several Roman landhouses () were found in the Palatinate region, for example near
Wachenheim
Wachenheim an der Weinstraße (formerly called ''Wachenheim im Speyergau'') is a small town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, roughly 1 km south of Bad Dürkheim and 20 km west of Ludwigshafen. It is known ...
and
Ungstein.
The restructuring of the 1980s raised the quality of the area's vineyards to modern standards and by the end of the 20th century, Palatinate wines were garnering international notice for their quality.
Climate and geography
The Palatinate wine region overlaps with, but is not coextensive with, the traditional German region of
Palatinate, making up only 5% of its area. The
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
region is an stretch situated under the
lee of the
Palatinate Forest on the
Haardt Mountains, a continuation of
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
's
Vosges Mountains
The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...
. Its climate is much like that of Alsace (France) in the south or Baden (Germany) in the east; and it is one of the warmest, sunniest and driest of German wine regions, with only parts of Baden (the only Zone B region in Germany), such as the Kaiserstuhl, being warmer. The vineyards are planted on a mixture of
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
and
volcanic soil
The soil composition of vineyards is one of the most important viticultural considerations when planting grape vines. The soil supports the root structure of the vine and influences the drainage levels and amount of minerals and nutrients that the ...
.
Subregions
The region is divided into two districts (''Bereich''), ''
Südliche Weinstraße'' (Southern Wine Route) in the south and ''
Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße'' (Central Haardt-German Wine Route) in the north. The Northern vineyards are located north of
Neustadt an der Weinstraße in a region often listed on
wine labels
Wine labels are important sources of information for consumers since they tell the type and origin of the wine. The label is often the only resource a buyer has for evaluating the wine before purchasing it. Certain information is ordinarily inclu ...
as ''Mittelhaardt'' and includes the following towns and villages:
*
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Win ...
*
Deidesheim
Deidesheim ( pfl, Daisem) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants.
The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the ''V ...
*
Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst may refer to:
Communities
In Germany
*, in the district of Aachen
*Forst (Baden), in Baden-Württemberg
*Forst (Lausitz), in Brandenburg
* Forst (Unterfranken), part of Schonungen, Bavaria
* Forst, Altenkirchen, in the district of Altenk ...
*
Freinsheim
Freinsheim (; Palatine German: Fränsem) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With about 5,000 inhabitants, it is among the state's smaller towns. It is also the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a ...
*
Kallstadt
*
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
The municipality is a winegro ...
*
Wachenheim
Wachenheim an der Weinstraße (formerly called ''Wachenheim im Speyergau'') is a small town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, roughly 1 km south of Bad Dürkheim and 20 km west of Ludwigshafen. It is known ...
*
Ungstein
*
Lambsheim
Lambsheim is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lambsheim-Heßheim.
Geography
Lambsheim is situated approximately 6 km southwest of Frankenthal, and 11 ...
*
Kirchheim
*
Bockenheim
The Southern subregion located south of Neustadt an der Weinstraße has significant plantings of the varieties
Grauburgunder (Pinot gris) and
Weissburgunder (Pinot blanc) but also produces some
Riesling
Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...
. The soil here ranges from sandstone to
slate. The subregion includes the following villages:
*
Birkweiler
*
Burrweiler
*
Frankweiler
*
Siebeldingen
*
Rhodt
Grapes and wine
There are 45 white and 22 red grape varieties permitted to be cultivated in the Palatinate. Overall the production is split between 61% white wine and 39% red wine.
For many years the dominant grapes of the region were the
Müller-Thurgau
Müller-Thurgau is a white grape variety (sp. ''Vitis vinifera'') which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882 at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in Germany. It is a crossing of Riesling with Madeleine ...
,
Kerner and
Morio Muscat
Morio Muscat (also known as ''Morio-Muskat'') is a white wine grape that was created by viticulturalist Peter Morio at the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding in the Palatinate in 1928. He claimed to have crossed the varieties Silvaner a ...
with Riesling always having a strong foothold in the Mittelhaardt. Toward the end of the 20th century, plantings of Riesling began to increase in the south as well as an increase in plantings of red wine varieties such as
Spätburgunder
Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French words for ''pine'' and ''black.'' The word ''pine ...
(Pinot noir),
Portugieser and
Dornfelder
Dornfelder is a dark-skinned variety of grape of German origin used for red wine. .
The wines of the Palatinate are traditionally dry (''
trocken
''Trocken'', German for ''dry'', is a classification of German wine that indicates a wine that is dry rather than off-dry (''halbtrocken''), sweeter (''lieblich'') or sweet (''süß''). ''Trocken'' wines are not devoid of residual sugar, but have, ...
'') with a
full body, though some examples of sweet Portugieser still exist. The red wines often reach
alcohol levels
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
of 13% and go through
malolactic fermentation
Malolactic conversion (also known as malolactic fermentation or MLF) is a process in winemaking in which tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malolactic fermentation is most often ...
and spend some time in
oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
. Since the 1990s there has been increased production in the sparkling wine (
Sekt
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...
) made from Riesling.
The most cultivated grape varieties, by area in 2008, were:
Culture
![Dubbeglas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Dubbeglas.jpg)
Unlike most other
German wine
German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Ancient Rome, Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhine ...
regions, wine is not only served straight, but is also
mixed with
sparkling water
Carbonated water (also known as soda water, sparkling water, fizzy water, club soda, water with gas, in many places as mineral water, or especially in the United States as seltzer or seltzer water) is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, ...
to make up a popular refreshing drink called , a term that also describes juice, mixed with water. Every wine making city or village has its own (wine festival) once a year, dedicated to drinking the local wines. On such occasions, wine is normally consumed as . It is traditionally served in 50
cl glasses called (meaning litre) as well as in the typical 25 cl ones called ("quarter", for litre).
They are of a special shape specific to the region and are known as the , widening from bottom to top and featuring indentations or large dimples () that give the glass its name. The older, undimpled cylindrical half-litre is also frequently seen in the region. The
German Wine Route
The German Wine RouteScheunemann J., Stewart J., Walker N. and Williams C. (2011), ''Back Roads Germany'', Dorling Kindersley, London. . or Wine Road (german: Deutsche Weinstraße) is the oldest of Germany's tourist wine routes. Located in th ...
() traverses this wine region. The region also produces
spirits
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
,
sparkling wine
Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...
s, wine
vinegar
Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...
, and
grape seed oil
Grape seed oil (also called grapeseed oil or grape oil) is a vegetable oil derived from the seeds of grapes. A by-product of the winemaking industry, it is typically used for edible applications.
Uses
Cooking
Grape seed oil has a moderatel ...
.
See also
*
German Wine Route
The German Wine RouteScheunemann J., Stewart J., Walker N. and Williams C. (2011), ''Back Roads Germany'', Dorling Kindersley, London. . or Wine Road (german: Deutsche Weinstraße) is the oldest of Germany's tourist wine routes. Located in th ...
References
External links
Pfalzweinofficial site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palatinate (wine region)
Wine regions of Germany
Geography of Rhineland-Palatinate