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The world of wine
The wine landscapes from Kraichgau and Stromberg: A strong piece of the German southwest!
Whoever is looking for secret tips here will find highlights.
This is no slick advertising claim: It is the knowledge and experience of many travels through the wind countryside between the Rhine and Neckar rivers, the municipality of Malsch in the Electoral Palatinate, the pilgrimage sites in the north and the Swabian Maulbronn with its world heritage monastery in the south.
The region calls itself "Land of a Thousand Hills" - and the vineyards are the most beautiful elevations in the region!
Paradise since primeval times
Built on coquina and Keuper strata and blessed with a paradisiacal climate, the wine countryside from Heidelberg to Karlsruhe has been a settlement area since time immemorial.
The Romans were not the first settlers to have brought wine - it has always been here: People have discovered 60 million year old fossilised remnants of vine plants, and more recent specimens of wild vines (1 million years) can still be found today in the floodplain forests of the Upper Rhine.
The grapevine is a cultural achievement. Vine cutting was probably "invented" about 3,000 years ago. According to legend, an ass stripped a few of his master's vines bare. The master was amazed when in the next year the young shoots grew stronger and the grapes were sweeter than ever before.
Travel destination for many peoples
Kraichgau and Stromberg were already coveted settlement territory in the dawn of mankind. The region has always been a travel destination, often transit territory. This had advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are obvious. Stone Age men and Celts, Romans and Suebi, Allemanni and Francs have left behind traces - the nicest of which are the grapevines!
Trollinger and culinary delights
Perhaps this is why there are so many and sometimes also such exclusive varieties of grapevines in comparison with other wine-growing areas: Trollinger, Lemberger or Black Riesling, for instance. In addition to St. Laurent and Cabernet Sauvignon, the new red wine variety "Regent" also grows to considerable size.
Burgundy on the fortress
The hundreds of fortresses and knightly generations will come into mind for those who have sipped a rich Steinsberg Spätburgunder (aka Pinot Noir) atop the Steinsberg (333 m, an extinct volcanic cone; the highest elevation in the Kraichgau region) near Sinsheim and philosophised about the octagonal keep known as the "Kraichgau Mountain Castle".
"Bundschuh" and Barrique
But also the rebels: The 1848 revolutionary Friedrich Hecker originated from the Angelbachtal area. And the first German peasant leader Joß Fritz ("Bundschuh", literally "tied shoe") came from Untergrombach near Bruchsal. Who would like to dispute that wine did not play a role in the uprising and rebellion?
Everything has something to do with wine here, even the forest:
Silvaner wine derives its name from "silva" (forest), and the Stromberg-Heuchelberg Nature Park is a proper "Barrique forest". Every fifth tree is an oak: the supplier of wood for the small, fine barrels which serve throughout the world for the convenient dissemination of major wines. France is a main consumer of oak.
The region does its splits between fortress and farmhouse. Fortress taverns as well as the many "broom-closet pubs" throughout the countryside invite folks to drink the wines…
"Mini Baden-Württemberg" - also with the topic wine
Naturally, the vinous distinction is clear:
In this case: The Württemberg wine region extending from the Neckar to the Stromberg, as well as the Zabergäu (a true "magical district" for connoisseurs) and the vinous Hechelberg, which is also a fruit paradise.
And then there is the Kraichgau region in Baden, which features the baroque town Bruchsal and the Melanchthon town Bretten, Östringen (with the Odenheim "Siegfried Spring") and health resort Schönborn in the northern Electoral Palatinate, which extends to the gates of Karlsruhe.
You have the choice: Everything your heart desires!
Try your hand at cultural wine village "hopping" - with a bicycle or also by foot: And every day you will learn important history and experience many culinary delights!
Climb up to the fortresses of the countryside and descend into the coopers' cellars.
Or indulge in the culinary wine delights in a wellness hotel. Take accommodations in a holiday vintner's farmstead and alight here for a few days from everyday stress. Or take part in the celebration at one of the many nice festivals along one of the longest wine roads in Germany.
The "Gentle Wine Land of 1,000 Hills"
No matter whether you prefer choice organic wines or a palatable "quarter-litre", whether you would like to enjoy baroque culinary delights or genuine rustic cuisine - you are always on the right side in the "Gentle Wine Land of a Thousand Hills"!
Perhaps your transit passage through the region will become a cheerful recurrence, as was the case with so many who came to visit here in the Kraichgau-Stromberg region in former times…
Surely you will find your very personal highlights and secret tip in the Baden-Württemberg wine land between the Rhine and the Neckar - guaranteed!
