WHY IS THE RHINE SO BEAUTIFUL? This question often inspires romantic glorifications of the landscape, culture and the people that live here. The answer also lies in the local wine. The wine regions in Hesse follow the Rhine along the sunny slopes of the Rheingau and Hessische Bergstrasse. Winemaking is a traditional craft in these regions, pioneered by Benedictine and Cistercian monks. Many important inventions and discoveries still used by winemakers around the world originated here: late harvesting and select picking, the cabinet cellar and bottling. Today this task is carried out by the School of Viticulture in Eltville and the Geisenheim Research Centre – Germany’s most important institution for viticulture.
     The Rheingau (3100 ha) and the Hessische Bergstrasse (444 ha) belong to the smaller German wine regions. Riesling is by far the most important grape produced in Hesse: 78% of the Rheingau and 50% of the Hessische Bergstrasse is covered by this variety. These regions provide optimum growing conditions for the best and most noble white wine in the world. The wines produced here are both interesting and magnificent. The long ripening period of the Riesling grapes ensures that they can make full use of mean annual temperatures between 10 and 11°C and over 1600 hours sunshine per year - ample time for the grapes to develop their acidity and aroma. The annual precipitation is