Germany by the glass

Bavaria's wine country is one of the nation's best-kept secrets, well worth a journey of discovery, Chen Liang reports.

For many of us Chinese, "made in Germany" stands for quality products, from world-class cars and machines to kitchen stoves and knives. But the manufacturing giant doesn't immediately make us think of good wine.

So it's a bit of a surprise that Lin Yisong, a businessman from Hangzhou, Zhejiang's provincial capital, bought a 17-hectare vineyard in Franconia, Germany in 2010.

On a recent trip to Franconia (also known as Franken) and Baden, two of Germany's 13 wine regions, I joined a familiarization tour organized by the German National Tourist Board.

We visited vineyards and winemaking cooperatives in the regions and, after sampling and enjoying a few glasses we can understand the attractions for a savvy businessman.

Our first stop is Wuerzburg, the major city in Franconia in the federal state of Bavaria. The historical town, known for fine examples of Baroque architecture, is bordered by vineyards that often overlook the Main River that curves through the city.

Strolling around its old part, one can hardly believe that a college-like historical complex has sheltered both a hospital and the cellar of Germany's second largest wine-growing estates.

In 1576, Prince-Bishop Julius Echter laid the foundation stone for building the home for all sorts of "poor, afflicted, and disgraced persons …" To enable it to meet its social responsibilities, the home was richly endowed with agricultural land and vineyards.

Today, the Juliusspital Wuerzburg cultivates some 172 hectares of vineyards in the vicinity of Wuerzburg and neighboring areas on the lower Main.

Under the hospital still in operation, we walk in a 250-meter-long tunnel flanked by 220 huge wooden barrels. They have the capacity to fill about 1 million bottles of wine.

A few of these barrels are nearly 100 years old and many have beautiful carving in relief on their lids. The largest one can contain 8,500 liters of wine.

In the ancient cellar, we taste Juliusspital's 2011 silvaner trocken. The dry white wine, made from silvaner — one of the region's most popular grape varieties — is very crisp and fruity. We also become familiar with the Bocksbeutel — a wide, round bottle that only Franconia and certain small parts of the Baden region are allowed to use in Germany.

After getting a glimpse of Franconia's lengthy wine tradition, we visit more vineyards near Volkach, a beautiful old town in the Franconian wine country. The area of Volkach, composed of 10 villages with a total population of nearly 10,000, has 10 privately owned wineries and much more grape-growers, which can produce more than 100 kinds of wine.

Spreading on the sunny slopes facing the clean Main River, these vineyards all have beautiful setting. According to our guide at Volkach, Marco Maiberger, the river helps create prefect microclimates for several grape varieties, such as Mueller-Thurgau, silvaner, Bacchus and Kerner.

Smaller grape-growers who do not commercialize their own wine often deliver the grapes to a winemaking cooperative, Maiberger says.

We visit the promotion center of Divano Nordheim, an example of cooperatives famous in Germany. Established in 1951, its membership includes 220 growers, cultivating wine on an area of 260 hectares.

At Divano, I taste several kinds of the cooperative's white and red wine. Fruity, elegant, crisp or heavy with the fragrance of blueberry, they are all impressive and priced below 10 euro ($13). Because of the price and decent quality, I see quite a few German visitors buying wine by cases.

Next we are in Iphofen, another small Franconian town. With complete fortification walls and a population of 2,800, it is the center of an area with 4,500 residents — and about 10 percent of Franconia's vineyards and 23 wineries.

Most of the wine they make can be found at Vinothek, the two-story wine center in the town. With more wine to sample, I start liking the German wine, especially the white, very much.

About 3 percent of wine produced in the world is made in Germany, according to Horst Lommatzsch with German National Tourist Board, who is with us on the trip.

Most of German vineyards are family-run and small. Nearly 80 percent is sold in Germany directly from the vintners to customers, and only a few brands are sold abroad.

"Places like Vinothek are where we search for special wine," he says.

His introduction is confirmed by grape-growers at Beckstein, a wine village with 36 families and 450 residents at Lauda-Koenigshofen district in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Our local guide, Gabi R. Rupp has only a half-hectare vineyard and so she joins Beckstein Vintner's Cooperative.

At the village's vineyards, Rupp offers us newly-picked schwarzriesling (pinot Meunier) grapes — surprisingly sweet — and several Beckstein wines — all excellent and special.

She says that a winery needs at least 15 hectares of vineyards to maintain its operation.

It's hard for individual grape-growers to make a living by only growing grapes, she says. "We need another job," she says, adding that she works for the cooperative.

"Growing a hectare of vines can earn about 7,000 euros ($8,900) a year. But maintain trellises, pruning, harvesting … are all hard work. So many young people are reluctant to carry on the business and they are leaving to big cities."

That may be why Lin Yisong got the chance to own an estate.

It produces about 100,000 bottles of wine a year.

Of the yield, only 10,000 bottles will be sold in the Chinese market, including 8,000 bottles that sell for 8 euro ($10) and 2,000 bottles priced at 25 euro ($32) in Germany. In China, the prices will be 200 yuan ($32) and 500 yuan respectively.

"They are mainly for friends and regular customers," he says.

Of the top 10 wine-producing countries in the world, he says, Germany is the only importer.

"Most of German wine are consumed by German people, like most of our products," he explains.

"If you want to drink German wine, the best way to do it is in Germany," says the tourism board's Lommatzsch.

Contact the writer at chenliang@chinadaily.com.cn.