The Weinstraße, also referred to as the Middle Haardt (''Mittelhardt''), is a region within the Palatinate in the German state of

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 ...

that was named after the

German Wine Road 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 the ...

or ''Deutsche Weinstraße''.

Geography

In a geological sense the Weinstraße is an altitudinal belt (''Höhenstufe'') that is just under 150 metres high in the centre. It is part of the

South German Scarplands The South German Scarplands is a geological and geomorphological natural region or landscape in Switzerland and the south German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The landscape is characterised by escarpments. It is variously referred to ...

and forms a hilly zone, about 85 kilometres long and 10 to 15 kilometres wide, that separates the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

from the mountains of the Palatine Forest. Its eastern edge is formed by the

Haardt The Haardt () is a range of wooded, sandstone hills in the state of Rhineland Palatinate in southwestern Germany. The range is some long and lies within the Palatinate Forest (''Pfälzerwald''). Its highest point is the Kalmit, near Maikammer ...

with its highest point, the

Kalmit The Kalmit is the highest peak in the Palatinate Forest and the second highest (after the Donnersberg) in the Palatinate region of Germany. It is and located south of the town of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. The mountain attracts many tourists ...

(673 m). The

runs longitudinally through the region.

Climate

Favourable

thermal A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

s cause warm air to climb up the slopes at night, whilst cold air flows down onto the plain, so that on the vine-covered hillsides of the Weinstraße there is a low risk of

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

at the time when the vines flower in spring. Thanks to these favourable climatic conditions,

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

and

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

trees are also grown here in the open as are kiwi fruits and

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

Economy

The Weinstraße is the largest part of the Palatine wine region. The main sources of income are

wine growing Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

, which are often marketed together. The wine-growing districts of the Weinstraße are described in the article on the Palatine wine region.

Transport

The Bundesstraße 271 federal road runs along the northern part of the Weinstraße, whilst the southern part is crossed by the B 38 federal road and A 65 motorway. Two railways cross the area: the line from

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 ...

to Neustadt (formerly the

Palatine Maximilian Railway A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

) and the Neustadt to

Monsheim Monsheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Monsheim lies in the southern Wonne ...

line (formerly the

Palatine Northern Railway The Palatine Northern Railway (german: Pfälzische Nordbahn) is a non-electrified single-track main line that connects Neustadt (Weinstr) Hbf with Monsheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was opened between 1865 and 1873 in three s ...

). Train services on both run to the Rheinland-Pfalz-Takt timetable system. {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinstrasse #Region Landscapes of Rhineland-Palatinate Anterior Palatinate Wine regions of Germany