Deidesheim's village wine fair runs for five August days through the half-timbered Altstadt, with stands from the local first-growth estates including Bassermann-Jordan, Reichsrat von Buhl, von Winning and other Mittelhaardt growers.
Tip: Walk the festival as a slow tasting trail across the village; Deidesheim is small enough to compare three or four top Mittelhaardt growers on foot in a single evening.
Address: Marktplatz, 67146 Deidesheim, Germany, Pfalz
A first-weekend-in-August village wine festival in Forst, the basalt-soil home of Jesuitengarten, Pechstein, Ungeheuer and Kirchenstueck, with stands from Mosbacher, Acham-Magin, Eugen Mueller and other Forster growers.
Tip: Time the Saturday afternoon for a side-by-side tasting at adjacent grower stands; Forst is the basalt benchmark of the Pfalz and the village wines share the same volcanic spine.
A July castle-and-wine festival on the ruined Wachtenburg above Wachenheim, with stands from the village's first-growth estates including Dr. Buerklin-Wolf and Karl Schaefer pouring estate Riesling under the Mittelhaardt hilltop.
Tip: Climb the Wachtenburg before sunset for the festival's strongest view; the ruin looks straight down the Mittelhaardt with Forst and Deidesheim laid out below.
The annual coronation of the Pfaelzische Weinkoenigin held within the Deutsches Weinlesefest in Neustadt, a ceremonial October weekend that is one of the longest-running wine-monarch traditions in Germany and a fixed point on the Pfalz calendar.
Tip: Combine the coronation Saturday with the harvest parade through Neustadt; floats from every Mittelhaardt village line up along the Hauptstrasse beforehand.
The Pfalz wine industry's regional showcase in Mannheim, a ten-day June fair on the Kapuzinerplanken with around 30 grower stands pouring Pfalz Riesling, Weissburgunder and Spaetburgunder to the urban Rhine-Neckar crowd.
Tip: Mannheim's wine week is the easiest way to compare Pfalz growers without driving the Weinstrasse; pick a single Friday evening and walk the planken end to end.
A late-May wine market at the northern start of the Deutsche Weinstrasse in Bockenheim, opening the Pfalz wine festival season under the Haus der Deutschen Weinstrasse arch that marks kilometre zero of the route since 1995.
Tip: Start the Pfalz wine year at the Bockenheim arch and drive south down the Weinstrasse afterwards; the kilometre-zero stone makes the strongest opening photograph of the season.
A rotating weekend tasting stand in the Kurpark at Bad Duerkheim, run from spring to autumn by a different Pfalz grower each weekend. The Weinprobierstand is the easiest year-round way to taste Pfalz wines outside a single estate.
Tip: Check the published rota before you go; the rotating grower changes weekly, so a planned visit lines you up with a specific Mittelhaardt or Suedliche Weinstrasse estate.
Deidesheimer Weinkerwe runs 13 to 17 August. These are the wine tours and tastings in Pfalz to book for the days around it; most cancel free up to 24 hours ahead.
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We are happy to share our wine knowledge with you and introduce you to our wines and our philosophy during the wine tasting and a tour of the historic wine cellar!
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