Asperg

Asperg lies in the Strohgäu at the foot of the Hohenasperg in the district of Ludwigsburg in Württemberg. The municipal area covers 580 hectares and stretches across elevations of 241 to 356 metres. The Hohenasperg rises around 90 metres above its surroundings and forms a widely isolated landscape feature in the Neckar basin.

The Hohenasperg is a Keuper formation preserved through a layer of reed sandstone and a tectonic trough. Its outcrops include, among other things, claystone, carbonate rock, sandstone, as well as anhydrite and gypsum. In the town’s account, gypsum Keuper forms the geological basis of winegrowing that has lasted for more than a thousand years.

The vineyard area Berg comprises steep, terraced south-facing slopes on the Hohenasperg. The terraces are divided by walls and hillside water channels; historic dry-stone walls are made of locally sourced reed sandstone and gypsum Keuper.

Winegrowing on the Hohenasperg has been documented since the early 9th century, while terraced viticulture developed as a management system in the High Middle Ages. The Vorderer Berg preserves steep plots, dry-stone walls, stone steps and paths, as no land consolidation was carried out there.

A description from 1859 names Sylvaner and Trollinger as the most important grape varieties, supplemented by smaller plantings of Elbling and Gutedel. The historic Asperg Schiller wine was considered suitable for ageing and was sold mostly in the surrounding area.

For the period 1971 to 2000, Asperg records on average 9.8 °C, 741 millimetres of annual precipitation, 43 summer days and 8 hot days per year. The main emphasis of rainfall falls from May to August; at the nearby reference station Stuttgart-Schnarrenberg, more than 70 millimetres were measured on average in these months.

Asperg was first mentioned in 819 in a document in connection with the Weißenburg monastery. The settlement on the Hohenasperg is first documented in 1304 as the town of Asperg.