Wine region
Baden
Baden: Germany’s southernmost wine region, over 15,000 hectares from Lake Constance to Basel, Spätburgunder, Grauburgunder, Gutedel and the Kaiserstuhl.
- Vineyard area
- over 15,000 hectares, Germany’s third-largest wine region
- Main grapes
- Spätburgunder (about 4,800 hectares), Grauburgunder, Müller-Thurgau, Weissburgunder, Gutedel
- Soils and climate
- the southernmost region, the only one in EU wine zone B; Kaiserstuhl of volcanic rock and loess
- Signature wines
- Spätburgunder, Grauburgunder, Weissburgunder, Gutedel, Badisch Rotgold
- Landmark
- Kaiserstuhl, a volcanic massif of the Miocene, 16 to 19 million years old
At more than 15,000 hectares, Baden is Germany’s third-largest and southernmost wine region. It stretches for about 400 kilometres, from the Tauber in the north along the Rhine and the Black Forest to Lake Constance in the south, and divides into nine Bereiche: Tauberfranken, Badische Bergstrasse, Kraichgau, Ortenau, Breisgau, Kaiserstuhl, Tuniberg, Markgräflerland and Bodensee. Baden is the only German region in EU wine-growing zone B, like Alsace and Champagne; its musts must therefore reach higher minimum weights than elsewhere in Germany.
The warmest heart is the Kaiserstuhl on the Upper Rhine, a massif formed 16 to 19 million years ago from volcanic rock and covered by up to 40 metres of loess. Places such as Ihringen are among the warmest in Germany, with a mean annual temperature above 10 °C and some 1,800 hours of sunshine a year.
Spätburgunder (Pinot Noir) is the main variety: with about 4,800 hectares Baden has more of it than any other German region, and more than the whole of Switzerland has Pinot Noir. The Burgundian varieties together cover over 60 per cent of the vineyard. Müller-Thurgau follows, especially on Lake Constance, as do Riesling and, in the Markgräflerland, Gutedel, the German name of Chasselas; almost all German Gutedel grows in Baden. A Baden speciality is Badisch Rotgold, a rosé of Grauburgunder and Spätburgunder.
Switzerland is the direct neighbour. The Markgräflerland begins at the gates of Basel and, by tradition, Margrave Karl Friedrich of Baden brought Gutedel here from Vevey on Lake Geneva around 1780, although this cannot be documented. On Lake Constance, Baden’s vineyards face Thurgau, home of Hermann Müller, who bred Müller-Thurgau, and the Klettgau of canton Schaffhausen continues across the border in southern Baden. The varieties are the same, only the names differ: Spätburgunder is called Blauburgunder in German-speaking Switzerland, Müller-Thurgau Riesling-Silvaner.
Baden Spätburgunder is often juicy, with cherry and berries, fine spice and, after oak, a note of vanilla; on the Kaiserstuhl it can be powerful and dense. Grauburgunder is ample and dry, Weissburgunder fresh and nutty, Gutedel light and easy, Müller-Thurgau fragrant and mild. At the table: Spätburgunder with duck, game and roast pork, Grauburgunder and Weissburgunder with asparagus, Gutedel with Flammkuchen and cheese, Müller-Thurgau from Lake Constance with whitefish and perch.