The Wine Island of Nordheim, Germany

I do love the sense of security that comes with advance, proper planning. 

But sometimes, I am up for a sense of adventure too especially being on the

road with a secure rock beside me - my husband.  Last Autumn, we

decided to tour the area of Franken in West Bavaria for a change. 

One of our most memorable stop I must say is around Nordheim town
where you see almost nothing except for rows and rows of vineyard. But
what sets Nordheim apart from the many vineyard found all over Europe I
feel is, the town is located within an island. The locals call it wine island and
right in the middle of all the hanging grapes lies a former castle on top of a
hill call Hillburg. The former castle is now a fame restaurant with a large
beer garden setting around it.

The view from here overlooking the vineyard is needless to say, magnificent

and breath-taking. When we stumble upon Hillburg that fateful night, the beer

garten were buzzling with jazzy tune coming from a very good local band.

They were so good, we stayed till the end and then wanting more, by checking

when they would play again. We also decided that this place warrant another

night extention after we reach the end of our Romantic Road journey

by stopping here before we drive up north to go home. The band was no

longer playing there unfortunately but, the serene setting of the place was still

as captivating. We tried searching for an accomodation right in this island but

as it is, it was a peak period. Also, it was grape harvesting season then and a

lot of tourist swamped here to catch a glimpse of local harvest festival.

My husband said, Franken is divided into two, very distinct area. The wine

area and the beer area. Since wine are usually drank and paired with course

meal, I find the food in this region excellent as compared to other parts of Germany.

The occasional pork base dishes are still evident but I am delighted to find

other form of meat or seafood. The smoke fish we had the following morning

for breakfast was particularly memorable. And so as the preparation of a

simple omelette which I suspect uses butter instead of margarine, which the

Germans favour more in general.

In my opinion, the wine has a long way to go to reach the majority´s taste

palate. One of the vineyard owner were explaining to her guest what the

Franken winegrowers are moving towards. The current production is geared

towards very dry variety hence, it is not to everyone´s taste.  But, they are

looking into replicating what the Mosel vineyard owners are doing by introducing

more sweeter variety. We are a huge fan of Mosel´s Riesling so naturally,

we were excited to hear such plans from them.

I wish them all the best and can´t wait to return here again to do some sampling
again. Hopefully by then, Riesling will be in the menu??