Location and landscape
Eisingen is a municipality in the north-western Enzkreis in Baden-Württemberg. The municipal area, measuring about 8.04 km², lies in the Pfinz hill country of the southern Kraichgau. In the west, the Bauschlotter Platte adjoins, while the Gennenbach forms part of the southern and western boundary.
The elevation ranges from about 207 metres in the Unteren Herrschaftswiesen in the north-west to around 360 metres at the Heidenkeller in the south-east. The village originated in a spring hollow at the beginning of a small valley in the Upper Muschelkalk. Local waters drain via tributaries in a north-westerly direction to the Kämpfelbach and Pfinz system.
Geology and wine-growing history
On the south-facing slopes, vines were presumably already planted before 1400; the first known documentary reference to vineyards dates from 1423. Until the end of the 19th century, wine-growing was an important source of income, before vine diseases reduced yields and led to vineyards being abandoned.
Eisinger Steig and the Old Press House
The wine-growing area Steig is also documented in historical records as Steigweinberg and Eisinger Steig. In the 1960s and early 1970s it was merged and reorganised; in 1971 the individual site Eisinger Steig was entered into the official vineyard register. After the reorganisation, among other varieties, Müller-Thurgau was planted on 6 hectares and Ruländer on 4 hectares.
The Old Press House is a former feudal tithe press. A wooden beam bears the year 1557, and it was used for pressing there until 1949. The historic facility worked with large wooden press frames and weighted stone systems that enabled a pressure of up to about 52.5 tonnes.
