Travelling with wine
Take a German wine tour and experience everything from picking and pressing grapes to exceptional festivals, fine winemaking towns and must-see vineyards.
Watch winemakers at work
If you want to know how wine is made, the place to start is with the grapes themselves. The journey to creating great wine begins with the harvest. The top three grades of wine in Germany are “Spätlese” (late harvest), “Kabinett” (cabinet), and “Auslese” (select). Only the best grapes are selected to make these wines. They are harvested by hand, known as “Traubenlese” in German. Visitors to Kloster Pforta in the Saale-Unstrut winemaking region can accompany the winemakers on a walk through the vineyards and learn how to identify grapes that will be used to make Auslese wines. You don’t even have to wait until the grapes you harvest have fermented into wine: once the work is done, “Federweißer” sparkling wine is available to try.
Wine and music
While the popular view holds that wine dulls the senses, a healthy dose of wine can open your ears and take your enjoyment of music to new heights. So it’s not without reason that music festivals are a vital element of German wine culture. The Rheingau Music Festival attracts over 100,000 visitors every year, making it one of the world’s largest festivals of jazz and classical music. Impressive locations such as Eberbach Monastery, Wiesbaden Spa, and Johannisberg Palace welcome visitors to enjoy wine and music at the festival, which began in 1987. The combination of regional grape varieties, a historic backdrop and leading international musicians blends into a unique experience.
Sleeping in a wine barrel
The historic wine-producing town of Rüdesheim am Rhein in Hesse attracts wine lovers from around the world to its many vineyards and festivals. Rüdesheim specialises in creating – and serving – outstanding wines made of the riesling and pinot noir varietals. The city lies within the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage area, but the wine barrels in Rüdesheim are not only used to cellar and transport wine: adventurous visitors can even spend the night in one! On the banks of the Rhine in the midst of the old town and its distinctive half-timbered buildings, six huge wine barrels have been turned into bedrooms. Each contains two beds and a small living space, giving guests the chance to immerse themselves in the romance of the Rhine and its wine for a night.
