Location and landscape
Erlenbach bei Marktheidenfeld is a municipality in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and in the Main-Spessart district. It is located in the south-western part of the district within the administrative community of Marktheidenfeld. The surrounding landscape is, geographically and geologically, part of the Swabian-Franconian stratified plateau (Stufenland), whose defining river is the Main.
Climate and soils
For the area of the administrative community of Marktheidenfeld, a continental climate with warm, dry conditions is documented, with more than 30 summer days and fewer than 100 frost days per year. Elevations there range from around 140 to 400 metres above sea level. The vineyard soils of Erlenbach are light Muschelkalk soils.
Viticulture
Erlenbach is a winegrowing municipality with around 36 hectares of vineyard area, of which roughly 7 hectares are in the district of Tiefenthal. The single-vineyard site Krähenschnabel is registered in the winegrowing region Franconia in the area of Main Himmelreich. Among other varieties, Ehrenfelser, Grauburgunder, Silvaner, Spätburgunder, Riesling, Weißburgunder, Dornfelder and Scheurebe are cultivated in this site. In addition, Müller-Thurgau and Grauburgunder are among the main varieties associated with Erlenbach.
History of the municipality and the site
Erlenbach is first reliably documented in 815 under the name Erlabah. From 1409, the municipality belonged to the possessions of the Counts of Wertheim, came to the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg in 1612, and was in 1803 made Bavarian as part of secularisation. The vineyard site Krähenschnabel was included in the Bavarian land consolidation programme from 1953; in 1970, seven single-vineyard sites there were combined under this name.
