Nahe

The Nahe follows the river of the same name from Bad Sobernheim via Bad Kreuznach to its confluence with the Rhine at Bingen, taking in the side valleys of the Alsenz, Glan, Guldenbach and Gräfenbach. It was long called "Germany's tasting room" because almost every soil type of German viticulture occurs here in a small area.

The heart lies between Schlossböckelheim and Bad Kreuznach: at the Rotenfels, at 200 metres the highest cliff north of the Alps, and in the Hermannshöhle, Felsenberg, Kupfergrube and Dellchen sites, some of Germany's longest-lived Rieslings grow on volcanic porphyry, melaphyre and slate. Further upstream around Monzingen, slate and quartzite dominate (Halenberg, Frühlingsplätzchen); downstream near Dorsheim and Münster-Sarmsheim gravel and quartzite (Pittermännchen, Goldloch, Dautenpflänzer).

The climate is dry and mild – the Hunsrück shields rain, and around 500 millimetres of annual precipitation is among the lowest of any German wine region. Besides Riesling (about 29 percent), the Pinot family, Müller-Thurgau and Dornfelder shape the picture; Pinot Noir is gaining ground.

Estates such as Dönnhoff, Emrich-Schönleber, Schäfer-Fröhlich, Gut Hermannsberg and Schlossgut Diel have lifted the Nahe into Germany's top tier since the 1990s. For wine travellers the region offers dense wine villages, tasting rooms right on the river, the spa town of Bad Kreuznach with its bridge houses and the Rotenfels as a lookout.