PALATINATE (WINE REGION)

'Palatinate' () is a German wine-growing region (''Weinbaugebiet'') in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as 'Rhine Palatinate' (''Rheinpfalz''). With 230 km² under cultivation, the region is the second largest wine region in Germany after Rheinhessen. There are about 6,800 vintners producing around 2.5 million hectolitres of wine annually.

The Palatinate wine region overlaps with but is not coextensive with the traditional German region of Palatinate, making up only 5% of its area. The wine region is a 80-km stretch situated under the lee of the Palatinate Forest on the Haardt Mountains, a continuation of Alsace's Vosges Mountains. Its climate is much like that of Alsace and it is the sunniest and driest of German wine regions. The German Wine Route (''Deutsche Weinstraße'') traverses this wine region.
The region is divided into two districts (''Bereich''), ''Südliche Weinstraße'' (Southern Wine Route) in the south and ''Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße'' (Central Haardt-German Wine Route) in the north.

45 white and 22 red grape varieties are grown with approximately 60% of the being white wine and 40% red wine. A variety of grapes such as Müller-Thurgau are predominant in the south while Riesling dominates in the north.
The region also produces spirits, sparkling wines, wine vinegar, and grape seed oil.
Unlike with other German wine regions, wine is served in 50cl glasses rather than the typical 25cl ones. They are of a special shape specific to the region and are known as the ''Dubbeglas'', widening from bottom to top and featuring indentations or large dimples (''Dubbe'') that give the glass its name. The undimpled half-litre ''Schoppenglas'' is also frequently seen in the region.

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See also

References

External links

See also

★ German wine

★ Palatinate (region)

References

★ Hugh Johnson. ''The World Atlas of Wine''. Fourth Edition. Singapore: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

External links

★ Pfalzwein official site