Viticulture: The 'Nahe-Wine Street'
Because of its varied soil, fruity, distinctive and elegant wines ripen
on the slopes of the Nahe and have contributed to the region being
called the "Nahe-Wine Street" (since 1971). It is also called the
wine-tasting area of the German wine region.
The steep slopes of the region are especially well suited to bringing
out the fineness of the
Riesling
with its fruity acidity, mostly dry in nature, and of the highest
quality. The Müller-Thurgau grape is less demanding of its location, is
less acidic than the Riesling and has a slight aroma of nutmeg. The
wines range from strong to powerful in the Lower Nahe area to rather
light in the upper Nahe.
The Sylvaner grape needs richer soil. When grown in the right
locations, this sort makes very harmonious wines known and appreciated
for their balance and endurance. Besides these "standard" grape sorts,
one finds Kerner, Scheurebe, Bacchus, Faber, Ruländer, and white
burgundy, as well as increasingly more red wine.
Many hundreds of substances determine the character of a wine. The
almost unlimited possibilities of variation and combination make each
wine unique. There are around 400 substances responsible for the taste
and aroma of a wine.
Photo: The picture shows the master winemaker Karl-Heinz Klumb, who has lived
in Langenlonsheim/Nahe since his childhood. With his daughter Carolin
(a trained technician for viticulture and oenology), he is harvesting
Riesling in one of his vineyards. Karl-Heinz Klumb shows a traditional
grape vat made of wood, as it used to be common everywhere, but which
can only be found in the museum today.