Wine Counterculture Is Alive and Well in Franken

A decorate metal door grill features a bronze grape cluster with black metal rays emenating from it.
Photo credit Valerie Kathawala

Franken was slower to wake up the wine counter culture revolution in Germany, but young growers are now more than making up for lost time.

Membership Required

You must be a member to access this content.

View Membership Levels

Already a member? Log in here

Similar Posts

  • · ·

    Remembering Werner Näkel

    On Saturday 13 September, Germany lost a winemaking legend when Werner Näkel passed away at the age of 72 in Dernau, his home village in the Ahr Valley and seat of the family estate, Weingut Meyer-Näkel. Werner Näkel will be remembered as a founding father of great German Pinot Noir, a wine which under the name of Spätburgunder had for a long time simply languished in the vinous doldrums of Germany, before, in the 1980s, Näkel and a handful of like-minded colleagues began to wonder why the grape, so highly revered worldwide for its red Burgundy renditions, should not be…...

    Membership Required

    You must be a member to access this content.

    View Membership Levels

    Already a member? Log in here
  • Unlocking Rieslingsekt’s Potential

    Riesling is admired for its complexity, longevity, and ability to reflect its terroir. The same is slowly becoming true in the sparkling wine sector, where bubble enthusiasts are discovering what aged Rieslingsekt can offer.  In the world of German wines, Riesling is the undisputed star. Still wines gained their historical reputation as early as the 15th century, while the 18th and 19th centuries witnessed the rise of traditional method sekt. Over time, large companies monopolized the production of cheap, tank-fermented sparkling wine, until smaller, individual wineries were finally allowed to produce and sell their sparkling wines in the early 1980s. This…...

    Membership Required

    You must be a member to access this content.

    View Membership Levels

    Already a member? Log in here
  • ·

    The New Teachings of Old Field Blends

    The year is 1806. The date June 17th. Privy Councilor Goethe sits in Frankfurt — high and dry. He reaches for his quill and writes a letter to a friend: “Send me some Würzburger wine, for no other wine satisfies, and I am morose without my accustomed favorite drink.”  While the line may not be poetic, the composition Johann Wolfgang von Goethe thirsted for is. The wine in question was, quite possibly, “Frentsch” (local dialect for Altfränkischer Satz or Old Franconian Mixed Set): a field blend of some 20 grape varieties, all planted, harvested, and fermented together. What once gave growers a bit of…...

    Membership Required

    You must be a member to access this content.

    View Membership Levels

    Already a member? Log in here
  • ·

    The Southern Mosel Would Like a Word

    Jonas Dostert is relaxing in the inner courtyard of his family’s Southern Mosel estate in Nittel. The sun is shining, the grapes were harvested in late October. Dostert is one of the growers of note at the southern end of the Mosel, a stretch long known as Obermosel. It’s a name many young growers in particular have rejected, as part of an effort to separate themselves from the region’s poor image in the past. “Obermosel” conjures images of accommodating, appeasing wines, the very definition of compromise. Dostert has quite a different understanding of winegrowing: “What I do is different from what’s…...

    Membership Required

    You must be a member to access this content.

    View Membership Levels

    Already a member? Log in here

© 2026, TRINK Magazine. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from TRINK.