the magazine of the german wine institute - Wines of Germany

14
GERMAN WINE HISTORY IN FAST MOTION
THE MOUNTED
SPÄTLESE MESSENGER
The discovery of the late harvest
(Spätlese) was a coincidence: as the
mounted messenger carrying the
permission to harvest from the prince
bishop of Fulda to the monks on the
Johannisberg in the Rheingau was
delayed for 14 days, harvesting could
only begin after the berries were
already affected by noble rot. “Such
wine have I not tasted before,” marvelled
the cellarer. Why the messenger
was late, is still unclear. But it is clear
that the Spätlese to this day is one of
the most important types of German
wine. Incidentally, the term “Kabinett”
can also be traced back to the
monks. They stored their best wines
in part of the cellar, which they called
Cabinet.
1775
1787
1830
ELECTOR CLEMENS WENCESLAUS
OF SAXONY
The Elector and Archbishop of Trier played a
crucial role as a wine connoisseur in shaping
the wine region of the Mosel. He decreed that
in order to improve quality all “bad” vines had
to be replaced by Riesling vines within seven
years. The result was one of the largest Rieslinggrowing
areas in the world.
BIRTH OF THE ICE WINE
The birthplace of the German ice wine (Eiswein) is
Dromersheim, a district of Bingen on the Rhine. It
is thought that the first ice wine in Germany was
picked there on 11th February 1830 from grapes
of the year 1829. The wine-growers did not harvest
the grapes because of their poor quality, but then
decided to pick them in the winter in order to use
them as cattle feed. They then noticed that the frozen
grapes turned into a very sweet and tasty juice
with a high must weight. They pressed the grapes,
and ice wine was born.
1868
UNITY IS STRENGTH
As the “Winzer Verein zu
Mayschoß” (wine-growers’
association of Mayschoß)
18 vintners from the Ahr
region formed the first
German wine-growers’
cooperative. Today there
are cooperatives in all wine
regions. About one-third
of German vineyards are
farmed by them. They are of
great importance in Württemberg
and Baden, where
there are many part-time
vintners.