EmptyNest

We are still struggling with our itinerary for our visit in late Sept. We have to start in Munich and end in Frankfurt but other than that we are open.

In trying to narrow down our choices, we each picked a must do. Mine is several days in wine country - now to pick.

Any recommendations or preferences for

- The German rhine road - Necker, Mosel, Rhine
- Austria
- Slovenia

Any favorite towns, winery?

Thanks

CharlieB

EmptyNest- you don't say you will be in Europe, but since you are arriving Munich and departing Frankfurt, I would suggest omitting Austria and Slovenia this trip. From Munich I would head North and West, making sure to stop in Wurzburg and sampling some Franken Wine. This is my favorite German wine. It is very difficult to find in the states as most is consumed domestically. From there I would head along the Neckar Valley enjoying the delightful towns, vineyards and scenery along the way. I would end my excursion along the Rheingau and Mosel before winding up in Frankfurt. If you are lucky you will find some wine festivals along the way. Check "germanwine.org" for a free brochure listing all the wine festivals in Germany.

logos999

Austria:
- Around Lake Neusiedl (Balaton) TOP!
RUST - Giefing Wineries - Don't miss!

- Südsteirische Weinstrasse

- Weinviertel
LANGENLOIS - only if you like white wine, unfortunately with some low quality mass production for export.

logos999

oops. I did write Balaton, of course I meant to write Fertö.

treplow

Following up on CharlieB's excellent suggestions:
From Munich, head north on the A-9 autobahn as far as the Allersberg exit #56. Take the back road to Roth - Abendberg - Windsbach and on to the Autobahn A-6. Head west to exit #48 (Feuchtwangen - Crailsheim Kreuz, intersection with A-7). Head north on the A-7 to Rothenburg. After visiting R. get back on the A-7, north. Get off at exit #105, head north to Ochsenfurth. You then will be in the Wuerzburg region wine country. Continue to Wuerzburg. (Hotel Steiburg is a good place to stay. Great view of the city and the castle Festung Marienberg.Wzbg is worth a full day.

Nice wine restaurants in Wzbg.: Juliusspital, Buergerspital, both with their own vinyards.

From Wuerzburg, follow the Main river west to Wertheim and Miltenberg (another nice old town). From M. drive to Amorbach (well known abbey with a great organ), Wallduern and on to Elstal, Moosbach and to the Neckar.

Follow the Neckar west to Heidelberg, and drive on to Speyer (another great old city) and the Weinstrasse at Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Along the Neckar, you will driving the Burgenstrasse (castle route)and you will see several castles along the way. Most have their own restaurants, where they serve the local wine.I would stay somewhere along the Weinstrasse. I did catch one of their fall wine festivals along that stretch, in Deidesheim, I believe.Lots of fun.

Follow the Weinstrasse as far as Kirchheim an der Weinstrasse. Get back on the A-6 there and head west as far as exit A-13 and the autobahn A-62. I would go as far as Trier and overnight there. Trier would be worth an extra day.

From Trier follow the Mosel as far as Koblenz, and head a bit south to one of the wine towns along the Rhein. Along the Mosel, places to stop are Piesport (Wineiesporter Troepfchen), Bernkastel, Traben- Trabach, Kroev (Kroever Nacktarsch, get one of your German friends to transdlate the name of that wine!),Zell (Zeller Schwarze Katz), Beilstein (one of the nicest towns along the Mosel) and Cochem (castle!)

The pretty part of the Rhein is between Koblenz south to Bingen.

I have driven all of the suggested routes many times and they are good and scenic.

fred0211

Hi 'emptynest',
I am not sure how much time you have available for wine tasting in Austria, Slovenia and Germany - three weeks? You'll need at least a week for each country!
However, if you want to just get a flavor for a day I'd agree with logos999 about the Südsteirische Weinstrasse and make sure to visit Eory.
(http://www.weingut-eory.at/de/start.html). You are so close to Slovenia that you may not find much difference in the wines of the region. But if you are a Riesling or Sylvaner lover you wont find a real good one in either Austria or Slovenia.

Instead head directly to Frankonia and Würzburg and sample the wines at the Juliusspital (http://www.juliusspital.de/html/1_ENG_HTML.htm). Should you have time make sure to stop in Iphofen on your way to Würzburg at Wirsching's (http://www.wirsching.de/) and try out his "Julius-Echter-Berg" . Some people argue that Rudolf Fürst in Bürgstadt (southwest of Würzburg on your way to the Neckar) makes one of the top 10 Riesling's in Germany - and I don't disagree a bit, it's just too bad I cannot get much here in the Midwest . Note on his web site (http://www.weingut-rudolf-fuerst.de/index2.htm) the click button for ‘international visitors’.
Skip the Neckar wines - but not Heidelberg of course! - and aim for the Palatine (Pfalz) area. Among the many vintners there I believe that A. Christmann (http://www.weingut-christmann.de/index_e.html) in Gimmeldingen and especially Georg Mosbacher (http://www.georg-mosbacher.de/english/index2.html) in Forst are among the very best.
From there go west over the Hunsrück mountain range to Wiltingen on the Saar river. By all accounts above the river is Germany's best vineyard - the Scharzhofberg - and Egon Müller (http://www.scharzhof.de/index.htm) is a legend among wine connoisseurs world wide - and pricy - but he let’s you taste! My favorite there is the resurrected VanVolxem Weingut – don’t miss it. Unfortunately, they don’t have a web site yet but this might do: http://www.wein-plus.de/weinfuehrer/Van+Volxem_595.html.

I leave it up to you how you find your way along the winding Mosel river and its numerous vineyards to Frankfurt!
Enjoy your wine travels
Fred