The Pfalz and Rhine Terrace

The Romans planted the first Rhineland vineyards 2,000 years ago. By the Middle Ages viticulture was flourishing at the hands of the church and the state, and a bustling wine trade had developed. This ancient vineyard area is now the state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland Palatinate), home to six of Germany's 13 wine-growing regions, including the two largest, Rheinhessen and the Pfalz. Bordered on the east by the Rhine and stretching from the French border north to Mainz, these two regions were the "wine cellar of the Holy Roman Empire." Thriving viticulture and splendid Romanesque cathedrals are the legacies of the bishops and emperors of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz. Two routes parallel to the Rhine link dozens of wine villages. In the Pfalz, follow the Deutsche Weinstrasse (German Wine Road); in the eastern Rheinhessen (Rhine Terrace), the home of the mild wine Liebfraumilch, the Liebfrauenstrasse guides you from Worms to Mainz. More »