Location and landscape
Bad Ems is situated in the lower Lahn valley in Rhineland-Palatinate, about 12 kilometres east of Koblenz and near the Lahn’s mouth into the Rhine at Lahnstein. The town lies in a narrow, deeply incised river valley between the Westerwald to the north and the western Taunus to the south. The adjacent slopes rise about 150 to 300 metres above the Lahn.
Geology and climate
Bad Ems lies in the Rhenish Slate Mountains. The Lahn has cut its valley into rock, which includes Ems quartzite. The climate is temperate. July is regarded as the warmest and wettest month; the average maximum temperatures rarely exceed 23 °C.
Winegrowing in the Lahn valley
Under the wine law of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Bad Ems belongs to the specified winegrowing region Mittelrhein. Between Bad Ems and Nassau there used to be vineyards, and from some of the abandoned areas, semi-dry grasslands were partly created. Winegrowing in the Lahn valley has been documented since the 13th century and historically reached an area of about 100 hectares. As the remaining winegrowing locations in the Lahn area, Obernhof and Weinähr are named.
