What I Learned
The canton of Thurgau, in north central Switzerland, is a wine producing canton. For wine purposes, this canton has several different districts: The Upper Thur Valley, the Lower Thur Valley, Rhine, Lauchetal, Seebachtal, and Untersee. Its northern most section, the Untersee faces onto Lake Constance and the High Rhine. Much of the rest of the canton wine production lies in the valley of the Thur River, a tributary to the Rhine, from which the canton gets its name.
Trail Name: Weinfelden Weinweg
Trail Type: A short distance circuit; well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, good marking on the trail
Length:
Total – 9 kilometers/6 miles
Convenient to: St Gallen, Switzerland; Konstanz, Germany
Marking: Burgundy colored metal arrow, with green grape leaf and trail name letters. See featured photo above.
The Bodensee (Lake Constance, in English) means fantastic cycling! Any wine-drinking fan of biking excursions in Europe should definitely cycle the Bodensee Radweg (Lake Constance Bike Trail) to experience the trail that German, Austrian and Swiss nationals have raved about for years, and to experience the great regional wines as well!
Following the shores of this lake, mostly on dedicated biking paths, the 260-kilometer-long Bodensee Radweg passes in and out of three countries: Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and through or along vineyards in Germany and Switzerland. (There is even one to see just outside Bregenz, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria.) It is a circuit, which means you can begin at any convenient spot along the trail.
What I Learned
The Bodensee wine district lies in a true garden spot for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, where fruit trees, truck gardens, and vineyards are tucked among small villages and ancient religious foundations.
It is located on Lake Constance. It is known in the German-speaking world as the Bodensee, and fondly referred to as the “German Sea” because it is shared between Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The lake itself has three distinct parts: the Obersee , the Untersee, and the Seerhein. There are vineyards along much of all of it.
Trail Name: Bodensee Radweg (Lake Constance Bike Trail) – Untersee segment
Trail Type: long-distance, multinational cycling circuit; very well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, with excellent marking along the trail
Length:
Total – Full Bodensee Radweg is 270 kilometers/167.75 miles
Segment: Untersee circuit only is 72 kilometers/44.75 miles
Convenient to: Konstanz, Germany/Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
Marking: Stylized black stick figure on bike with blue rear wheel, on a white background Trail Description:
Rhone vineyards and their wines are famous throughout the world: Chateauneuf du Pape, Hermitage, Condrieu, Cote Rotie, etc. But the Rhone River begins in Switzerland, not France, and that was where I recently biked part of the Chemin du Vignoble, or the Trail of the Vineyards, following the Rhone River Valley vineyards in Switzerland’s French-speaking Canton of Valais.
What I Learned
Valais means valley, in this case, the Rhone River valley in Switzerland. Here, steep mountains rise up from the narrow, valley floor. This wine region in the southwestern corner of the country has Switzerland’s driest and sunniest weather. Thus, it is a little wine-making paradise, and accordingly, the Valais arguably produces some of the best- known wines in Switzerland.
In the Valais, vineyards lie on the north side of the Rhone, facing primarily south, from the west in Martigny to the east around Leuk. Within this area are several varietals that are little known to the general wine-loving population outside Switzerland. These include the white varietals of L’Amigne, Humagne, and the Petite Arvine, and the red varietals of Cornalin, Diolinoir and Gamaret.
Trail Name: Chemin du Vignoble
Trail Type: Long distance, two-stage bike trail from Martigny to Leuk (aka Loeche), in the Valais Canton in Switzerland; well-maintained and almost exclusively paved, but marking on the trail can be problematic in places.
Length:
Total – 83 kilometers/ 51.5miles
Stage One – 36 kilometers/22.4 miles
Stage Two – 47 kilometers/29 miles
Convenient to: Martigny, Montreux, or Sion, Switzerland
Marking: Red stylized grapes with 72 in white, on a blue square, on a red arrow.
The Rhine River valley has vineyards on both sides along much of its length. In four countries, (five, if you include a mere 30 acres in the Vorarlberg region of Austria), vineyards cover select slopes of various geologies and topographies. Five sections of the Rhine have vines: The Alpine, the High, the Upper, the Middle and the Lower. The Alpine Rhine, from Reichenau to Lake Constance, mostly flows through a mostly wide valley lined by Alps on either side. The Graubunden Canton north of Chur, the tiny country of Liechtenstein, and the Sankt Gallen Canton, all have vineyards on the slopes facing onto this section of the Rhine. Since I had already visited some of those vineyards on a hike in the Graubunden Canton, (see here) I decided to visit the Sankt Gallen Canton to see some of their vineyards, and to learn about some of their wines.
What I Learned
The Swiss Appellation d’Origine Controlee Sankt Gallen in eastern Switzerland, has two districts, both in Sankt Gallen Canton: the Oberland and the Rheintal. The Rheintal district lies on the west side of the Rhine River valley before it enters Lake Constance and consists of parcels in select spots between Rheineck and Rebstein, along with a smaller section by Bad Ragaz. Less than 130 hectares (320 acres) of vineyards exist in total. Planted on slopes that rise (somewhat steeply by Berneck and Pfaefers) from the valley floor, the highest vines are in Pfaefers. Mueller-Thurgau and Blauburgunder (Pinot Noir) are the most planted varietals.
