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The Great Grapevine Argument: Fall in the Southern German Vineyards
By Amanda Kendle

Although I’m a teacher, most of my adult students spend a lot of their lesson time trying to teach me instead. Every fall I get the stories about the vineyards. “Did you see that the grapevine leaves have all changed color?” they’ll ask me. And then the fun begins. Wolfgang’ll tell me that the vines of green grapes have leaves that turn yellow, and the leaves of red grape vines turn red, Angelika’ll say that it’s exactly the opposite, and Siegfried will tell me that it’s completely random.

Whatever the correct scientific explanation, there is one fact I’m sure about: when fall comes, the vineyards in southern Germany are one of the most beautiful places in the world to be. In Baden-Wuerttemberg, the south-west corner of Germany which takes in the Black Forest, Stuttgart and Heidelberg, locals inconspicuously tend to their vineyards in low hills criss-crossing the state.

Some of the rows of vines still run along and around the hills, the traditional terracing method since superceded by lines of vines running from top to bottom, laid in this fashion after machinery developed that functioned better this way.The prettiest views occur when these two methods stand side-by-side, and then, of course, when the fall comes and the green carpets become red, orange and gold.

Whoever dares to visit me in my current hometown of Heilbronn in October risks an overdose of vibrant-colored-leaf-viewing. Heilbronn, less than an hour north of Stuttgart, is set in a small valley and surrounded by vineyard-plastered hills, and a drive in any direction during October or early November has me stopping and reaching for the camera. Usually I need a fairly warm coat, but then I’m set to wander the trails between the vineyards for hours.

When an old schoolfriend stopped by Heilbronn last fall, a particularly chilly week put hot chocolates and freshly-baked cakes high on her priority list. After one outdoor day of fall leaf hunting, Katie had a special request.
“Just take me to some café with a nice view,” she asked, “and I can at least pretend that I’m sightseeing.”
Luckily, I knew just the place to keep us both happy. A favorite fall haunt for me is the vineyards of the Wartberg, a hill overlooking the city. There’s a café and restaurant at the top, often booked out on weekends, but if you arrive outside of regular mealtimes, you can fulfil the kind of wishes my friend Katie had.
Next to the restaurant, an old tower still stands, and the already impressive views are even better from the top. Not that Katie found this out for herself: “If I climb up there the wind’ll go right through my jacket and I’ll have to go and get another hot chocolate to warm up again!”
On our walk back to the car, Katie admired the multi-colored grapevines and I told her the many theories I’d heard about how the colors came about. Authoritatively, she decided the Wolfgang theory - green grapes have yellow leaves, red grapes red – was definitely correct.

I’m still not sure, and each time I poll another person I get a different answer. But not knowing what color to expect won’t stop me taking walks through the vineyards. And I’m never the only one: locals walk their dogs here or take their families out for relaxing strolls, too.

The day after Katie left, I took advantage of a spot of sunshine to take a much-needed power-walk, trying to do something about all the Kuchen we’d eaten. Arms pumping, knees coming up high, and getting quite out of breath, I still managed to “Guten Tag!” a local couple walking in the opposite direction. The husband laughed at me, and asked me why I was in such a hurry. I guess he thought the bright colors were there to be enjoyed, not to be sped by on a workout. If I’d had a bit more breath in me, I would’ve asked him about his theory on grapevine leaf colors, and been able to score one more point on my poll.

Amanda Kendle is an Australian addicted to travelling who has lived in Japan, Slovakia and Germany. She works as an English teacher but learns more from her students than they do from her. She writes daily for jaunted.com and is the Topic Editor for Eastern Europe and Russia Travel at http://eeuroperussiatravel.suite101.com.

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