Location and landscape
Weigenheim is a municipality in the district of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim in Middle Franconia, Bavaria, and belongs to the Uffenheim administrative community. The municipality lies in the largely level Windsheimer Basin. To the east, the Scheinberg and the Hohenlandsberg rise up as outliers of the Steigerwald.
Climate and soils
The Uffenheim area is among the dry and warm zones of Bavaria. For the Weigenheim study area, an average over many years documents an annual mean temperature of about 8 °C, 17.5 °C in July, annual precipitation of about 550 to 600 millimetres and a growing season of 220 to 240 days. The landscape belongs to the Franconian Keuper, with deposits mainly of the Lower and Middle Keuper. At the Hohenlandsberg, the Lehrberg formation occurs; loess and loess loam cover large parts of the foothill landscape.
Vine growing
Weigenheim is a Franconian wine-growing municipality with vineyards in the municipality and its constituent localities, including Reusch and Frankenberg. The Hohenlandsberg reaches 498 metres above sea level and is connected with the wine landscape Weinparadies Franken. The vineyard site Hohenlandsberg is assigned to Weigenheim and Reusch; within the Weigenheim cadastral area it covers about 13 hectares, in Reusch about 15 hectares. The Bavarian vineyard directory lists the protected designations Weigenheim-Hohenlandsberg and Weigenheim, Reusch-Hohenlandsberg in the Franconia wine-growing region.
Historical references
The first documentary mention of Weigenheim is dated to the year 822. A document from 5 January 1261 mentions 14 joch of vineyards in Weigenheim and a wine-press site that was transferred to the Heilsbronn monastery. Later, the place belonged to the lordship areas of Hohenlohe and Schwarzenberg before it became Bavarian in 1806.
