Announcement: The Wine, Concert, and History Tour - Germany-East 2023 by ombiasy WineTours - Monday, June 19 - Thursday, June 29, 2023

 

The Wine, Concert, and History Tour - Germany East 2023 by ombiasy WineTours 

Monday, June 19 - Thursday, June 29, 2023

Discover Germany’s internationally unknown wine regions east of Frankfurt and Germany’s intellectual and cultural cradle in “Mitteldeutschland”. Spend 10 days touring four wine regions, enjoy Berlin, Germany’s vibrant, hip, and fascinating capital, indulge in first-class wines, incredible art and culture, and learn about lots and lots of fascinating German and European history from medieval times to recent events such as the transition from a divided Germany and GDR times to a unified country, and attend performances at world-renowned concert and opera houses, such as the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Semper Opera in Dresden., and the Mozart Festival in Würzburg. This tour will tickle all your senses and emotions.

• We will kick off the tour in Berlin, the vibrant, fascinating capital of Germany: the cauldron of cultural cool, the combo of glamour and grit, gourmet temples and curry wurst booths, world-class museums and grand opera and street art, and yes! a historic wine making region, which we will explore.
• We will visit a total of 16 wineries (the majority are members of the VDP, the German association of elite wine makers) in 4 different wine regions: Saale-Unstrut, the northernmost German wine region and former GDR territory. It is situated on the hillsides lining the Saale and Unstrut rivers and produces racy white wines from many white grape varieties; Sachsen, also located in the former GDR, is the easternmost German wine region and extends some 35 miles north and south of Dresden along the Elbe river. This region tickles all your senses with its unique voluptuous baroque architecture, a rich history, its wealth of art, and love of all the good things in life; Franken with its Bavarian charm and gorgeous, crisp, crystal clear wines from their signature grape Silvaner; Württemberg, Germany’s premier red wine region with hearty, bold wines made from grapes like Lemberger (Blaufränkisch in Austria), and Trollinger. This is the region where wine is ingrained in daily life like nowhere else. The Württemberg region has the highest per capita consumption of wine in Germany.
• We will get intimate insights into a selection of Germany’s best of the best wineries, normally not open to visitors.
• We will learn how to read the labelon German wine bottles.
• We will get to know the classification of German wines including the new VDP classification.
• We will have excellent, typical German meals at great restaurant, historical places, and at the wineries with the owner/winemaker.
• We will bump into German history and culture at every turn of our trip.
• We will heareye witness accounts of recent German history worthy of a spy thriller: from the GDR to reunified Germany.
• We will get a tour d'horizon of European history while meeting winemakers and owners of wine estates belonging to families having shaped European history thoughout the centuries.
• We will visit Leipzig and Dresden, for many centuries Europe’s cultural and intellectual centers and nowadays again - after surviving almost 50 years under communist rule - a stronghold of European culture.
• We will experience world-class performances: at the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Semperoper Dresden, the Ballet of Stuttgart.
• We will get the insidetrack and will indulge in art, culture, and history.
  

Germany with its roughly 250,000 acres under vine belongs today to one of the smaller wine producing countries in the world. However, viticulture in Germany has a long tradition, going back to Roman times 2,000 years ago. In the 15th century, the area under vine was four times larger than it is today. Wars, subsequent loss of territory, diseases, overproduction, and competition from beer brewing resulted in land turned over to other agricultural uses. In the 19th century, concentration on terroir and technological progress fostered a tremendous improvement of quality and the prestige of German wines, in particular from the Mosel, Rheingau, and Pfalz regions, resulting in prices above those for first growth Bordeaux wines.

Today, all thirteen wine regions in Germany produce outstanding wines. However, the two regions in the former GDR had a lot of catching up to do. During the communist times from 1945 until reunification in 1989, wine production was nationalized, and winemaking took place in huge VEB (volkseigener Betrieb / company owned by the people) wineries. The output, the bottle count was imposed on the VEB by the State, and therefore quality could not play a major role. The winemaking process was deprived of modern farming and cellar techniques. The majority of wine produced was for the consumption of the communist party members. After the iron curtain came down, family wineries were founded, and the winemakers pursued quality with a vengeance. Some of Germany’s finest Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris today come from the Saale-Unstrut and Sachsen regions.

Monday, June 19 - Thursday, June 29, 2023  

Night 1: Monday, June 19: art'hotel in Berlin, a 4 star quiet, small, friendly hotel close to the Nikolaiviertel in central Berlin. The art’hotels are a collection of unique, modern hotels with an interior design inspired by artists. 

Nights 2 + 3: Tuesday, June 20 + Wednesday, June 21: Hotel Zufriedenheit in Naumburg, a new 4 star, very elegant boutique hotel with stunning room designs in the heart of Naumburg. 

Night 4: Thursday, June 22: Hotel INNSIDE in Leipzig, a brand new 4 star ultra modern hotel in a beautifully restored late 19^th century building just next to J.B. Bach’s famous Sankt Thomas Church, and the historic city center. 

Night 5: Friday, June 23: Parkhotel in Meissen, a beautiful, charming 4-star hotel built in 1870 in the art nouveau style with stunning views across the Elbe river to the Meissen cathedral and the impressive Albrechtsburg. 

Night 6: Saturday, June 24: Hotel INNSIDE in Dresden, a very stylish, modern 4-star hotel with innovative design in the heart of the city with the Twist Sky Bar on the 6th floor that allows for a spectacular panoramic views of the golden, magnificent dome of the rebuilt Frauenkirche. 

Nights 7 + 8: Sunday, June 25 + Monday, June 26: Hotel Greifensteiner Hof in Würzburg, a 4 star hotel with an old-world elegance in the historic center of the Barocke town Würzburg.

Night 9: Monday, June 27: Hotel Lamm Hebsack in Remshalden, a family-run, very cosy hotel with a long tradition of hospitality, a very warm welcome, and a good restaurant. The hotel in the small village of Remshalden is beautifully located between vineyards and orchards.

Night 10: Tuesday, June 28:Hotel zum Alten Rentamt in Schwaigern, a family-run, historic hotel, part of the Count von Neipperg Estate, with an elegant, refined interior and cultivated hospitality. I

Itinerary

For more details and the itinerary day by day go to the website of ombiasy WineTours. 

Previous Germany-East by ombiasy Winetours 

For previous Germany-East by ombiasy WineTours see here:  

Germany-East Tour 2018 by ombiasy WineTours: Wine, Art, Culture, History - Berlin, Saale-Unstrut, Sachsen, Württemberg, Franken

Germany-East Tour 2017 by ombiasy WineTours: Wine, Art, Culture and History

Germany-East Wine and Art Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015)

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