Zach Creek
Bridge over the Zach
Styrian Landscape
Saarburg from the Castle
Church and Castle, Saarburg
Vineyards and the Wurtzberg Winery
Gallery July 2019
Monthly Archives: July 2019
A Saarweinwanderweg Hike
There are discrete places that our memory captures in perpetuity for reasons unknown to us. Saarburg was one such place. A combination of road closures, road work detours and searching for a shortcut, took me there one afternoon. One glance at the compact historic center, rising dramatically above the serpentine Saar River, impressed itself so firmly in my mind that when I found a wine-themed hiking trail there, I knew that I would have to return to hike the trail.
Wine Notes: Saar (Mosel)
What I Learned
In 2007, the German wine region of Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, became known simply as the Mosel. But I want to highlight the unique wines of the Saar, a distinct territorial entity as indicated in the old designation. The Saar River is the Moselle River’s longest tributary. Lined by steep slopes, the Saar terroir is composed chiefly of blue Devonian slate. Since the Saar vineyards on the whole are higher in elevation than the Mosel vineyards, this slate component to the soil is particularly important as it captures and retains the heat of the sunshine, thus helping to ensure the grapes survive to reach maximum ripeness, sometimes as late as early November!
Saarweinwanderweg: Trail in a Nutshell
Trail Name: Saarweinwanderweg
Trail Type: Long distance circuit; almost exclusively paved or hard-packed surface, well maintained, and fairly well marked.
Length:
Total: 77.4 kilometers/ 48 miles
My stage: 16 kilometers/10 miles
Convenient to:
Trier, Germany
Marking:
White rectangular signs with blue lettering (See featured photo above.)
Water to Wine
From water to wine, and wine-gardens, the literal translation of Weingarten, German for “vineyard.” That was both the theme and the reality of this circuit hike by Sankt Stefan ob Stainz. It was here in Styria, Steiermark, in German, that I began my exploration of the wines from this southeastern corner of Austria.
Wine Notes: Austria’s Steiermark
What I Learned
The Steiermark is a wine region in the southeast corner of Austria. It is called Styria in English. The Steiermark lies just north of the Slovenian Alps, and east of the Austrian ones. Within this political and wine entity, there are three wine sub-regions.
-The easternmost, the Suedoststeiermark lies closest to Hungary, from where gets some of its climatic influences. Its topography is moderately hilly in most places, and as the name for its Vulkanland district implies, is influenced by remains of ancient volcanos.
-The southernmost, is the Suedsteiermark, which shares a long border, as well as a tradition of viticulture, with Slovenia.
-Then there is the Weststeiermark. It is known by Austrian wine-lovers, and promoted by the local tourism industry, as Schilcher-land, home to a rose wine of the same name.
Zachgraben und Weingaerten: Trail in a Nutshell
Trail Name: Zachgraben und Weingaerten (Zach Creek and Vineyards)
Trail Type: A mid-distance circuit trail; some sections maintained, others rougher, with varying surfaces, from paved to mud. This circuit is not marked (See comment)
Length:
Total – 10.1 kilometers/6 miles
Convenient to: Graz, Austria
Marking:
None (See comment!)
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