AmericanWinery.com

With about 59,000 vineyard acres, this is the second largest of Germany’s thirteen anbaugebiete (quality-wine regions). However, it’s often Germany’s largest volume producer, averaging over 25 percent of the country’s total wine production. The region’s English name, Palatinate-, is derived from the Latin palatium, meaning “palace.” It refers to the first palace built by the Holy Roman Empire for its governors, who became known as Counts Palatine. The region was previously called the Rheinpfalz-, but this was shortened in 1992 to Pfalz-, the German transliteration of palatium. Pfalz- borders France’s Alsace region in the south and Rheinhessen in the north, with the Rhine River forming its eastern boundary. There are two bereiche covering the Pfalz-—Südliche Weinstrasse, which is the southern half of the region, and Mittelhaardt/Deutsche Weinstrasse, which takes in the north. The southern half is extremely sunny and fertile and produces large quantities of wine—almost as much inexpensive Liebfraumilch as the Rheinhessen region. Most of the best wines produced in the Bereich Südliche Weinstrasse are consumed locally. The northern section produces the better wines, and the best area of that section is called the Mittelhaardt, which lies between Neustadt and Bad Dürkheim. Great wines, primarily Riesling, are made in the villages of Deidesheim, Forst, Ruppertsberg, and Wachenhem. Müller-Thurgau is the most widely planted variety, followed by Riesling and a host of others includ ing Gewürztraminer, Kerner, mario-muskat, Rülander (Pinot Gris), Scheurebe, Sylvaner, and the red Portugieser.