August 2016
These are two towns we had never heard of but got to visit thanks to the itinerary of the river cruise we took. There are so many little towns in Germany that are beautiful, and Wertheim and Marktheidenfeld are two of those. Being on the Main River, these were the stops to get off the boat and stretch our legs, so to speak.
Wertheim(population 24,000) was a pretty town with a nice enough town center. There’s a castle by the same name that is well known. We walked around the medieval town center and popped in a bakery to snack. Marktheidenfeld is a smaller town(population 11,000) with similar feeling.
The most memorable thing was the winery we visited in this area. The owner of the Johannes Deppisch Winery was quite a businessman, and his entire family with young children were involved in the business. He told us why we never see much of good German Riesling wine in the U.S. (“we love’em so much that we don’t export to the U.S.”) He also enlightened us on the virtue of Franconian wines and the significance(symbol of high quality) of the round bottles they use. We were also introduced to the red Riesling wines, which were remarkable.
Small Wide World 