Saale-Unstrut is a region (''Anbaugebiet'') for quality wine in Germany,Wein.de (German Agricultural Society): Saale-Unstrut
read on January 2, 2008 and takes its name from the rivers

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, ...

and

Unstrut The Unstrut () is a river in Germany and a left tributary of the Saale. The Unstrut originates in northern Thuringia near Dingelstädt (west of Kefferhausen in the Eichsfeld area) and its catchment area is the whole of the Thuringian Basin. It ...

. The region is located on various hill slopes around these rivers. Most of the region's under vine in 2008German Wine Institute: German wine statistics 2009/2010
is situated in the federal state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...

, with around in the state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

Geography and climate

Saale-Unstrut is the northernmost of

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 ...

's wine regions, and is therefore one of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

's northernmost traditional wine regions. The wines from the

Memleben Abbey Memleben Abbey (german: Kloster Memleben) was a Benedictine monastery in Memleben on the Unstrut river, today part of the Kaiserpfalz municipality in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The convent, now ruined, was established by Emperor Otto II and his consor ...

were mentioned in the literature already in the year 998 AD. Because of the cooler climate

Spätlese Spätlese (literal meaning: "late harvest"; plural form is ''Spätlesen'') is a German wine term for a wine from fully ripe grapes, the lightest of the late harvest wines. Spätlese is a riper category than Kabinett in the '' Prädikatswein'' cat ...

Auslese ''Auslese'' (literal meaning: "selected harvest"; plural form is ''Auslesen'') is a German language wine term for a late harvest wine and is a riper category than Spätlese in the '' Prädikatswein'' category of the Austrian and German wine class ...

can be produced only in exceptionally warm years and yields are generally low. The region in the district

Burgenlandkreis Burgenlandkreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Its area is . History The district was established as Landkreis Burgenland by the merger of the former Burgenlandkreis and Landkreis Weißenfels as part of the reform of 2007. On 16 ...

has a wine route which was opened in 1993.

Grape varieties

The most common

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

varieties are the white varieties

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 ...

, at and 18.4% of the vineyard surface in 2008 and

Weißburgunder Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation (vine), genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one C ...

(

Pinot blanc Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produces white ...

) at 12.1%. White grape varieties make up 74% of Saale-Unstrut's plantations. Varieties such as Müller-Thurgau and

Silvaner Sylvaner or Silvaner is a variety of white wine grape grown primarily in Alsace and Germany, where its official name is Grüner Silvaner. While the Alsatian versions have primarily been considered simpler wines, it was included among the vari ...

, which elsewhere are considered to produce wines of more mediocre quality, are sometimes considered to give better wines in the cold climate such as Saale-Unstrut's. The wines are labelled varietally, as most German wines, and are generally vinified dry with a refreshing acidity, resulting from the cool growing conditions. The most cultivated grape varieties, by area in 2008, were:

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saale-Unstrut Wine regions of Germany Regions of Thuringia Burgenlandkreis Regions of Saxony-Anhalt