Saale-Unstrut: Germany's Coldest Wines

Saale-Unstrut: Germany's Coldest Wines

In the 1980s DDR, buying wine from a local cooperative was a criminal offense — the state controlled all distribution. After reunification, Rotkäppchen survived privatization and became the second-largest sparkling wine producer in the world. The Cistercian monks at Kloster Pforta classified their vineyard quality in 1226 — vinum bonum, melius, terrestre — 800 years before Robert Parker. At Naumburg Cathedral, a sculpture of Uta von Ballenstedt became Walt Disney's reference for the Wicked Queen in Snow White. Neuenburg Castle was three times the size of Wartburg by 1230.