SAALE-UNSTRUT: VITICULTURE ON THE EDGE

Saale-Unstrut lies at the 51st parallel and is the northernmost wine region in Germany. Like its east German neighbor Sachsen, the peak of viticulture in Saale-Unstur occurred in the 16th century with 10,000 hectares before the Thirty Years' War. The area under vine ebbed and flowed over the centuries with wars, annexations, and tariffs, coming to a head at the end of the 19th century with blights of mildew and, ultimately, phylloxera in 1887. By 1919, only 100 hectares of vineyard remained in Saale-Unstrut.

After the two World Wars and the founding of the Deutsche Democratische Republik (DDR), winegrowing in the Saale and Unstrut valleys fell behind the regions of western Germany. Quality plant material and modern equipment were difficult to acquire, and cooperatives produced most of the wine. Growers with small holdings could continue to make wine for personal consumption and were able to sell a few bottles to the local population, a rare source of wealth for those lucky enough to own a few rows of vines. After reunification, some hobby vintners became full-time winegrowers, and much redevelopment, investment, and expertise reinvigorated the region. 

The Rotkäppchen Sektkellerei, which became Rotkäppchen-Mumm in 2002, is a massive facility in Freyburg producing a mind-boggling 330,000 million bottles of sparkling wine yearly. It is one of the few former state-owned companies in the DDR that survived the reorganizational period of eastern Germany during the early 1990s and is a thriving enterprise today. Other cooperative cellars remain essential, but small producers lead the quality charge in Saale-Unstrut today. In 2023, the region has three VDP member estates: Pawis, Böhme & Töchter, and Weingut Hey, each producing an outstanding range.

Vines grow mainly on south-facing terraces facing the two rivers that give the region its name: the Saale and the Unstrut. Deep frosts in winter or late spring are common, so viticulture is only possible in protected locations. With around 500 mm of precipitation annually, the region is one of the driest in Germany. It receives about 1,600 sunshine hours a year. Yields are naturally low at around 50 hl/ha. Most vineyards are in Saxony-Anhalt, with a smattering of vines in Thuringia and a mere five hectares in Brandenburg. With 798 hectares of vines, Saale-Unstrut is Germany’s fifth smallest wine region, larger than the Ahr but significantly smaller than the Rheingau. 

To counter the challenging climatic conditions, growers experiment with many different vinifera, crossings, and PiWi varieties. Around 30 grape varieties are used today, with Müller-Thurgau as the most planted variety with 15% of the total vineyard area. The mere mention of Müller-Thurgau will make some in the American wine trade roll their eyes, but I have yet to taste a better Müller-Thurgau from Germany than that produced by VDP Weingut Pawis in Saale-Unstrut, a wine of lean but ripe fruit and mineral depth with lovely aromatic precision. That’s how I’d describe many of today’s best Saale-Unstrut wines, whether from Weissburgunder, Riesling, Bacchus, or Silvaner. 

Pawis is one of the wineries with holdings in the Freyburger Edelacker, a terraced and south-facing site with weathered Fossil-limestone and loess. This historic terraced site has been cultivated since the Middle Ages, and engravings from centuries of farmers are etched into the terrace walls. Edelacker is classified as a Grosse Lage in the VDP’s vineyard classification. Other well-known sites are the Karsdorf Hohe Gräte, a monopole of Lützkendorf, and Gosecker Decantenberg, a 3.5-hectare monopole of the historic Kloster Pforta with pure red sandstone and walled terraces.

There are three Bereiche (districts) within the Saale-Unstrut Weinanbaugebiete (wine region): Neuenburg, Thueringen, and Naumberg.