The visit to the vineyard in Saale-Unstrut was made during a press trip together with German Tourist Office, but all opinions and thoughts are, as usual, my own.
The slope below Neuenburg Castle is both steep and difficult to grow, but that doesn't stop the straight rows of vines from buckling under the weight of the large bunches of ripe grapes. Harvesting here requires time, hands, persistence and strong legs. The cultivation is too steep for harvesters. A handful of pickers methodically work their way through the rows of vines with large plastic trays full of grapes which they carry down the hundreds of steps. When they have reached the bottom and emptied the trough of grapes, they quickly turn back up the slope. It's harvest time in Freyburg in Saale-Unstrut, Germany's northernmost wine region.
The Saale-Unstrut wine region takes its name from the two rivers Saale and Unstrut that meander gently through the undulating landscape. Here on the sun-drenched and relatively dry southern slopes, wine has been grown for over a thousand years.
In the heart of this wine region we find Freyburg, a cute town with cobbled streets and beautiful houses. Here is the historic vineyard Herzoglicher Weinberg, a vineyard owned and protected by Geo-Natur Park Saale-Unstrut-Triasland for its historical and cultural heritage. Many different types of grapes are grown at the vineyard and there are tours and guided tours for those who want to learn more about the area's winemaking. Which of course I want.
Here at the vineyard, 17 different kinds of grapes are grown, everything from the fruity Bacchus to the classic German Riesling grape, which produces dry and healthy white wines. The Swiss grape Müller-Thurgau is the farm's most common grape, but the oldest vines on the farm from 1925 are Weißburgunder - also called Pinot blanc in the rest of the world.
The easiest way to determine which grape is grown where in the vineyard, is to look at the leaves of the vine. Some grapes have angular leaves, while others have more round leaves. Our guide tries to show us the differences between the leaves of the grapes, but it's not easy to keep up. I probably won't be a wine expert today either.
The annual average temperature in the area is 9 degrees and with 1600 hours of sunshine per year and the protective Harz mountains, the area gets stable harvests despite its northern location. However, winters can be cold and frost is devastating to vines. In order to protect the harvest, you therefore need to light fires under the vines on cold days. But sometimes even that is not enough. 1987 was a tragic wine year, when almost 70% of the area's wine harvest was destroyed by frost.
We walk briskly up into the sunny vineyard with our guide. The sugar-hard grapes at our side are surrounded by wasps voraciously sucking the coveted juice from the sweetest bunches. It is truly harvest time.
Usually, the harvest falls on the second week of September, and in connection with this, they have a harvest festival every year. Then the wine cellars are opened primarily to make room for the new harvest, but the harvest festival also celebrates life, the wine and all the people who worked with the harvest.
Our guide's pace up the steep stone walls is significantly faster than the rest of the group and it is noticeable that she walks up and down the slopes here several times a day. The stone walls that surround us do not only fulfill a practical function to level the terrain. Their solar-warmed surfaces store the heat from the sun's rays during the day and spread it further to the ground during the chilly nights. A smart solution that protects the roots of the vines and provides a longer growth period.
In the Saale-Unstrut wine region, white (green) grapes dominate the cultivations (81% of the vineyards) and although the dry and crisp wines are of high quality, few bottles reach outside the borders of Germany. In fact, barely outside the region's borders, as the inhabitants themselves are very fond of their wine. Here at the farm, however, you can buy the farm's wine at good prices, which many do. Both locals and tourists.
We stop in the small round half-timbered pavilion in the middle of the vineyard. Here you can organize wine tastings for up to ten people. But only during the summer months, when there is no toilet or heating in the house. It's a bit risky trying to get down to the main building from here in the dark and cold after a wine tasting.
The bottles of rosé that our guide has carried with him in a wicker basket are uncorked and the glasses that we carried with us up the hill are filled. It is a semi-dry rosé wine from the estate, a pleasant and social wine with lots of red currants in the notes.
On the way down to our lunch at the outdoor terrace, we meet a large middle-aged group with identical specially printed t-shirts in tense anticipation for their booked wine tasting. It turns out to be a group of German friends on a wine holiday. My German isn't the best, but they manage to tell me that the message on the t-shirts is "I prefer wine", although the occasional man in the group stands out with a shirt that says "I prefer beer". But the beer drinkers look happy anyway. I ask one of the beer drinkers if they shouldn't join the screening, but get a laugh in response. Of course it should be included. "Everyone likes wine."
We settle down at a large wooden table with benches under a verdant pergola. Lunch consists of large platters with mountains of charcuterie, cheeses and bread served with the farm's wine. When we're stuffed to the brim with lunch, it's barely visible that we've eaten anything. It is generous, incredibly social and pleasant. A place I would love to come back to. Then maybe even together with a large group of friends with similar shirts.
How do you get to Freyburg?
Freyburg is located in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany, 5 Swedish miles east of Leipzig. The nearest major airport is Berlin (22 Swedish miles), but there is also a smaller airport 5 Swedish miles away between Halle and Leipzig (Flughafen Leipzig/Halle).
For those who want to discover several wineries in Saale-Unstrut, there is one wine rot which takes you to Herzoglicher Weinberg and 50 other wineries along the 60 kilometer stretch from Memleben to Bad Sulza.
The historic Straße der Romanik also passes here, which you can read more about in Strasse der Romanik – 2 castles along the Roman road in Saxony-Anhalt.
Facts about the Saale-Unstrut wine region
Important cities in the region: Freyburg, Naumburg and Bad Kösen
Soil: Limestone and sandstone
Areal: 847 hectares
Main grapes: Müller-Thurgau (14%), Weißburgunder (14%), Riesling (9%), Dornfelder (7%), Bacchus (7%)
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