“No other wine tastes as good to me, and I am glum when my usual favourite drink is lacking,” is what poet laureate Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once lamented in distant Weimar, when he was without his beloved Würzburger Stein wine. Approximately 100 years later his colleague Kurt Tucholsky regretted “that you can’t caress wine” after a few glasses of grape juice from Schwanberg located in lower Franconia.

Both writers rhapsodised over Silvaner, first planted in German soil exactly 350 years ago, on 10th April 1659 to be precise, on the slopes of the Steiger Forest in Franconian Castell. Counts and later on princes of Castell have practiced viniculture there since 1266, on 65 hectares today. The first 25 Silvaner vines came to Castell from Austria and for this reason it was also referred to earlier as “Austrian”. It has not been definitively shown how they ended up in the Habsburg Empire.

From Franconia Silvaner spread along the Rhine and Main to all of Germany and was the most important German grape variety until the 1970s. Because greater value was placed on volume and not quality, it was suddenly said: “If you don’t smell anything it’s a Silvaner.” This has fortunately changed in the meantime. Young Silvaner glistens with notes of apple, citrus and herbs. When aged it impresses with aromas of melon, mango and honey, all combined with discreet acidity. Furthermore, Silvaner from prime locations such as Escherndorfer Lump in Franconia astounds by impressive minerality due to shell limestone and flint stone.

And Silvaner has in its blood Traminer, the grape variety with the greatest aging potential. Moreover, Count Ferdinand of Castell-Castell shows that the old grape variety is also suitable for elegantly sweet wines.

Further information about anniversary events is available from http://www.franken-weinland.de/?sprache=en or tel. +49 (0) 931 390 11-0