Starkenburger Landwein

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The greater part of the appellation lies on the western flank of the Odenwald facing the Rhine valley, with numerous lateral valleys and a high proportion of steep and terraced sites.
• With the subsidence of the Upper Rhine Graben during the Tertiary, crystalline plutonic rocks of Carboniferous age rose several thousand metres and today form the bedrock underlying the Bergstraße.
• Vineyard soils with significant proportions of plutonic bedrock occur as gabbro in Seeheim, as diorite and granodiorite in Gronau, Unter-Hambach, and Heppenheim, and as granite in Bensheim, Zwingenberg, and Auerbach.
• In the area around the Heppenheimer Starkenburg and the Hambacher Tal, the remnant of a Buntsandstein sandstone block has been preserved, whose vineyard soils consist of coarse-sandy weathered material.
• Long-term climatic data for the period 1981 to 2010 show a mean annual temperature of 10.8 °C, a mean temperature during the growing season of 15.5 °C, annual precipitation of 697 mm, and an average of 1,685 hours of sunshine.

• The small-scale structure limits mechanisation, particularly on steep sites, which inevitably results in a greater reliance on manual labour.
• After harvest, the wine is vinified and classified at the Landwein quality level, with cellar practices aimed principally at preserving the compounds concentrated in the grapes.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Germany

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PGI-DE-A1306
• Official trade body site — Deutsches Weininstitut (DWI)