Location and Landscape
Pfinztal is a municipality in the district of Karlsruhe in the state of Baden-Württemberg and lies in the Pfinz-Kraichgau region. The municipal area borders the city of Karlsruhe to the west and the Enzkreis to the east. It extends along the Pfinz valley with riverside areas, gentle hills, forests, meadows, orchard gardens and vineyard slopes.
Natural Landscapes
The Pfinztal portion of the protected area Pfinzgau West comprises landscapes near Berghausen, Söllingen and Kleinsteinbach. There, gentle hills alternate with steeper slopes at Knittelberg, Silzberg, Hopfenberg and Talberg. Alongside managed orchards, fields and hedges, there are both cultivated and abandoned vineyards. On steeper former vineyard areas, the occurrence of calcareous dry grasslands indicates a longer-term conversion or the abandonment of individual sections of vineyards.
Viticultural Framework
Pfinztal lies in the regional vicinity of Pfinz-Kraichgau; the Kraichgau is one of the nine wine-growing regions of the winegrowing region Baden. During the growing season, the Kraichgau records around 1,300 hours of sunshine, while the annual precipitation amount is approximately 750 to 850 millimetres. Geologically, Muschelkalk, Keuper and Buntsandstein shape the region, often overlain by loess.
Grape Varieties and Wine Style
Among the important white grape varieties in the Kraichgau are Riesling, Grauburgunder, Weißburgunder, Müller-Thurgau and Auxerrois. For red varieties, Spätburgunder, Schwarzriesling and Lemberger are important. Regionally, the wines are described as aromatic, moderately full-bodied and mineralically refreshing. Pfinztal belongs to the winegrowing region Baden, the only German winegrowing region in the EU winegrowing zone B; as a result, for quality and Prädikat wines, higher minimum must weights apply than in lower-ranked German zones.
