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Baden Wine Road (Badische Weinstraße)

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My wife and I are planning our anniversary trip to SW Germany this coming spring and plan on driving the Baden Wine Road. I have searched high and low on the internet for detailed route information and stops along the way but am having trouble finding any good, detailed information. To give some background: we will be driving a rental, we're staying near Heidelberg, and this is our 1st time to Germany. Also, when I think of "wine routes" I automatically picture something along the lines of what we have in the states - a scenic secondary road lined with wineries and vineyards open for tastings...is this what I should be expecting on the Baden Wine Road? Thank you!

Posted by
12040 posts

I found this website, but it's only in German. It has a link to a PDF map, which for some reason my computer can't properly download. Usually when you drive these sorts of Ferienstraße (themed tourist routes), they're marked with brown signs to point you along the way.

I haven't specifically driven the Badische route, but I have driven other wine roads in Germany (there's more than 10). "Wineries" as they exist in the US are far less common in Germany. Rather than a large enclosed estate, the German wine industry is more often made up of small stake-holders who grow their grapes on leased public land. The actual wine is made in a cooperative in the town and sold under a common mark. You may find some private wine estates, but this business model is far less common. Some towns may have a store that offers sampling of the local wine, others just sell their products directly to restaurants and grocery stores.

If you're staying near Heidelberg, however, it makes more sense to explore the towns of the Bergstraße, which is basically route B3 from Darmstadt to Wiesloch. The road skirts the western foot of the Odenwald mountains and passes through many very attractive wine towns, some of which have histories stretching back to Roman times. Minus the stand-alone wineries, this is probably very close to what you are picturing. And extremely convenient to Heidelberg.

Posted by
8889 posts

The website Tom listed ( http://www.badische-weinstrasse.de/ ) is the official one and full of useful information, but only in German. You could try running it through Google translate, but expect some sentences to get garbled, and some of the text is part of pictures, so that is not translated.

The Badische Weinstraße is well signposted and appears on tourist maps. The wine area is the foothills of the Black Forest, to the west is the flat Rhine valley, and the hills rise up suddenly, the lower half of which are covered in vines. Plus there are some "outlier" areas like the Kaiserstuhl. The wine road runs along the bottom of the hills through all the villages, most of which have very German-looking tourist hotels and restaurant.
The wine is produced by "Winzergenossenschaft" (co-operative winery), equivalent of the French "Cave coopérative". These are jointly owned by the winegrowers of one or more villages who all bring their grapes to the Winzergenossenschaft, which markets the wine under their name (which is usually the name of the village). You will see signs to Winzergenossenschaft as you go along the Weinstraße. Most Winzergenossenschaft have a sales counter, where you can taste ("probieren") the wine and buy it by the case (6 or 12 bottles, mixed cases possible). This is not a paid for tasting, it is a sampling prior to buying. The salesperson will happily explain about all their wines and why they are better than those of the next village, but only in German, do not expect any English.
One of the most popular grape types is "Spätburgunder", which produces red wine. Germany does not export much red wine, Spätburgunder is so good they drink it all themselves.

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