📍 Palatinate

The Palatinate is a wine region in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the second largest in Germany by area. Vines grow only in the Vorderpfalz: from the edge of the Palatinate Forest across the Haardt slope to the plain by the Rhine. To the south the region borders Alsace, to the north the area around Worms. Geologically it is part of the Upper Rhine Graben.

The vineyards lie at an average of about 170 m and face south-east. The most common soil is loess and loess loam, followed by river deposits, sands and limestones. The average temperature is about 10 °C, rainfall about 655 mm a year, and the forest to the west shelters the slopes.

The area is 23,787 ha (2024), 69 % of it white grapes. Riesling comes first (24.9 %), followed by Dornfelder (10.1 %), Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Müller-Thurgau and Pinot Blanc. There are 7,375 ha of red vines, making it Germany's largest red wine region, and about 40 % of German Sauvignon Blanc grows here. The region has 2 districts: Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße and Südliche Weinstraße.

The German Wine Route was the country's first such route: 85 km and 130 wine villages from Bockenheim to Schweigen near Alsace. Bad Dürkheim hosts a wine festival that the German Wine Institute calls the largest in the world.

Why it matters to you. In the Palatinate, a single vineyard name may appear only when at least 85 % of the wine comes from the seven grapes listed in the rules: Riesling, Chardonnay, Traminer, Dornfelder and the Burgundy varieties. Liebfraumilch on a label is not a grape but a traditional term. Whites are served at 4–10 °C, reds at 15–18 °C.