Hey you! Cosmopolitan wineophile! What are you just having? Where is your wine from exactly?
Ever wanted to get a feel for the surroundings and the single vineyards of Nuits-Saint-Georges in Burgundy? Or get a better understanding of the plots and vineyards around Montalcino? Want to see the location of the world’s steepest vineyard, the Calmont in Bremm at the River Mosel?
We just came across Weinlagen-Info, an interactive tool to search and zoom in an out of the world’s vineyards. Based on Google maps, Weinlagen-Info features 160 wine regions to explore. So if you get curious about the origins of that single vineyard Riesling your are just sipping on… you can explore it right now from your tablet.
The project was launched in 2007 by Karlheinz Gierling, a winelover wanting to know exactly where his preferred tipple was grown. Left wanting with what he found, he and a group of friends created an app and database that was ready to take in the world’s vineyards. As an – uh – hobby. No commercial interests at all. Just open for anybody to use or to contribute to. With the input of over 50 volunteers the database has grown into one of the world’s largest for vineyards. To date the statistics boast 11.000+ records.
The design is Google-style, if not to say basic. Also, results on keyword search need a bit of interpretation… But the hierarchical listings are very good fun to explore. It’s neatly sorted top down from country, to region, to area, to village to vineyard. Search results are displayed with dots on a map, defining granularity and zooming is all yours. Switch from satellite view to maps to get a feel for distances and back to satellite for real pictures.
According to founder Karlheinz the major goal is comprehensiveness, with basic information being listed for each plot – and the option for anyone interested in wines to add records or add-on extra information about listed vineyards. But Germany, to no surprise, is very well listed.
When it comes to New World wine regions there surely are still blancs.
Go on – play with it here… If you find your preferred region is not represented to your liking, get in touch and contribute.
You may also find out that you’d like to take a trip so some of the vineyards in Germany. Want to experience the breathtaking views of the Bremmer Calmont in real-life instead of virtually (as below)? In this case contact me, I’ll be gladly taking you on a guided wine tour!
