Wine-growing region Saale-Unstrut
We endeavour to present our guests in our ‘Friedrich’ a comprehensive cross-section of the wines produced in the region. Our region is the Saale-Unstrut wine-growing region: small but beautiful, very young in modern times, yet with a very long history - that is the Saale-Unstrut wine-growing region.
Despite its very long history, the wine that grows on the Saale and Unstrut rivers only became known and recognised again after some ups and downs thanks to the work of the winegrowers after 1990.
Very brief history of the Saale-Unstrut wine region
It was Cistercian monks who cultivated the first vines. This happened in 1066 in the Pforta monastery. Word quickly spread about the art of winegrowing and, over the course of a few years, the landscapes along the Saale and Unstrut rivers became a true paradise for wine. Wine had its heyday in the Middle Ages.
The Thirty Years' War basically put an end to winegrowing on the Saale and Unstrut rivers. Many of the vineyards were destroyed or burnt down. The Saale-Unstrut wine region was slow to recover, but it did gain momentum. But as early as the 19th century, there was another widespread collapse: phylloxera wreaked havoc. As a result, the area under vines continued to decline. After the First World War, they were no longer worth mentioning.
The Saale-Unstrut wine region was only rediscovered after the Second World War and was now located in the GDR. The government in East Berlin decided to cultivate wine using modern methods. What mattered now was quantity, not so much quality. The wines had, well, not a particularly good reputation. With German reunification, a new era dawned for the Saale-Unstrut wine region.
Saale-Unstrut nowadays
A recultivation of the Saale-Unstrut wine region in every respect began in the 1990s. Instead of focusing on quantity, the reprivatised or newly established winegrowing businesses once again focused on quality.
The grapes grow mainly in the southern part of Saxony-Anhalt and the northern part of Thuringia. As the results are getting better and better, especially for white wine, the area under cultivation is being expanded every year, but growing grapes in the Saale and Unstrut region is not easy. A lot of manual labour is required on the steep slopes of the often terraced vineyards. The winegrowers also have to contend with adversity.
This is how it presents itself today, the area that attracts more and more day trippers from the neighbouring cities of Leipzig, Halle (Saale), Jena and Erfurt and many tourists every year: Steep vineyards with terraces, centuries-old, newly plastered dry-stone walls and sometimes romantic, sometimes overgrown vineyard cottages and houses. This characterises the lovely and charming Saale-Unstrut wine region. And we also have to mention Naumburg, because nowhere else in Europe (perhaps in the area around Siena in Tuscany) and thus in the world has such a complete ensemble of fortifications, secular and sacred buildings from the Middle Ages been preserved in such a small area. As a unique testimony to medieval architecture and art of the 13th century, Naumburg Cathedral was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018.
Climate and soils
The climate poses the greatest challenge for winegrowers on the Saale and Unstrut rivers. The region has many hours of sunshine and a climate that is not unfavourable for winegrowing. However, winter comes early and goes late in this small wine-growing region and it is the frost that can cause the vines the most trouble. The grapes have too little time to ripen. Ask a winegrower on a hike about the icy night frosts in spring 2024 and the expected answers will vividly illustrate the problem.
However, the soils - and that is what counts - are very good, as the grapes grow predominantly on shell limestone and coloured sandstone.
