The 45-kilometer Zellertalweg hiking trail runs through the heart of the Zellertal. I have created a loop trail that builds off of this longer path and can be divided into several stages. It takes in the best-known vineyards and some of the most interesting sights featured in my forthcoming wine travel guide to Germany. For me, this is the most beautiful part of the Zellertal, naturally including the Schwarzer Herrgott in both the Pfalz and Rheinhessen. As my route diverges from the Zellertalweg at several points, use this downloadable GPX file to navigate. (Works with any standard phone-based hiking app…
As a former importer, speaker, writer, organizer of events, wine tours and wine-focused walking holidays, Gerd Brabant has gained exceptional first-hand experience within the German wine world. Together with Marc Roovers, he is the co-author of Wijnland Duitsland, a comprehensive Dutch-language book on German wine. Gerd’s next book is due out in 2027: an in-depth wine travel guide to nine German wine regions. His greatest passion is exploring wine regions on foot.
At 31, Isabella (“Bella”) Keller-Rutayungwa is already a force in German wine. She’s an entrepreneur who launched her own wine import company, a Master of Wine student, the mind behind a globally popular pop-up bar, a part-time grower at Weingut Keller, one of Germany’s most respected estates — and the newest member of German wine’s highly respected “royal family.” Beyond all this, what sets Keller-Rutayungwa apart is her conviction that fine wine (she prefers a different term) is for everyone. Her mindset is already changing how people approach the wines she champions. She’s got a winning backstory, smart ideas around…...
Germany seems to require an official examination for everything. Qualitätsweine (“quality wines”) are no exception. Those that fail the test are slapped with the Landwein label. In April 2015, a group of top growers from Baden, deep in Germany’s southwest, joined forces to rebel against the official inspection system. Flouting what officials would think of as a demotion, they decided to wear Landwein as a badge of honor. Baden has long been seen as the kinder, more conventional Germany. Thus Landwein is a direct challenge to that sensibility, one that takes on more significance because it seemed the unlikeliest of places for revolt. It happened the way so many…...
A bottle of wine is a foregone harvest, a transmuted measure of the soil, sun, and rain that fed erstwhile grapes. Federweißer, however, is an immediate taste of the harvest. In 2007, I was fresh out of college and living in Mainz, Germany, a gateway to major wine regions like the Rheingau and Rheinhessen, when I first encountered the young, sweet, low-alcohol wine called Federweißer and its red counterpart, Federroter. It was late summer when wooden stalls selling Federweißer materialized throughout the pedestrianized city center. There, I had my first swigs alongside Zwiebelkuchen, a flaky onion tart with a caramelized…...
The Mosel, Germany’s oldest winegrowing region, knows how to beguile. The Rheingau swathes itself in the trappings of nobility, Baden boasts of its sunshine, the Mittelrhein beckons with Romanticism. The Mosel, however, reaches straight for myth. There are many recaps of the growing region readily available, so let’s focus on something else instead: what makes the Mosel unique — now, then, and, likely, in the future. Not for nothing is the biggest annual wine fair along the Mosel River entitled “Mythos Mosel.” The name, and the event itself, attest to the enduring power the Mosel holds in the imagination of the wine-drinking…...
