The northerly winemaking regions of Germany straddle the 50th parallel and are amongst the world’s coolest vineyards.
Nonetheless, vine cultivation dates to the ancient world—wild vines had been growing on the upper Rhine previously, but Vitis vinifera arrived in Germany with the Romans. Near the end of the 3rd century, Emperor Probus overturned Domitian’s 92 CE ban on new vineyard plantings, and viticulture followed the Romans into provinces north of the Alps. By the fourth century winemaking was definitively established along the steep slopes of the Mosel River. Charlemagne, the legendary beard-stained lover of wine—whose newly minted Carolingian calendar replaced the Roman October with Windume-Manoth, “the month of the vintage”—introduced vine cultivation east of the Rhine River in the late eighth century. During the Middle Ages, the Church was instrumental in shepherding the development of vineyards, and many of Germany’s modern einzellagen (vineyards) owe their nomenclature to monastic influence. As in France, the Church essentially operated its own feudal economy: it collected a tithe, or tax, from the parishioners who worked the vineyards, and wine made a suitable substitute for cash. The Cistercians of Burgundy founded the famous Kloster Eberbach monastery in the Rheingau in 1136, where they amassed the largest vineyard holdings in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages, with over 700 acres of vines. The walled Steinberg vineyard, an ortsteil within the commune of Hattenheim, was the monks’ centerpiece and remains wholly intact today—an alleinbesitz (monopole) of Kloster Eberbach for over eight centuries
So I was reading a bit more about Vin de Glacier of the Valais, and it is mentioned that it is made mostly of Ermitage (Marsanne) instead of Reze these days, and the traditional blend was 90% Rèze + 10% Humagne Blanc, Ermitage, Petite Arvine, Malvoisie (Pinot Gris).
"Nowadays glacier wine (Le Glacier) is produced mainly from Ermitage. As far as the oxidation process is concerned, the wine is usually aged for 10 to 15 years in a series of larch-wood barrels.
Grimentz glacier wine is a legend that can only be tasted in Grimentz village wine cellars. The story behind glacier wine is extremely simple: the casks are never completely emptied and each year new wine is added. The oldest drops can be over 125 years old!"
honestly, this probably doesn't matter much, since one of these sources says "The “Vin du Glacier” cannot be bought. It is only savoured in the cellars of the Anniviers, drawn directly from the barrel. Unless you know a resident of the Val d’Anniviers who is prepared to share a glass from their personal reserves, there is only one solution if you want to try it: visits organised by the Grimentz Tourist Office."
So, this was probably a waste of 45 minutes of googling and memorizing.
www.valdanniviers.ch/.../glacier.html
www.myswitzerland.com/.../glacier-wine-the-sherry-of-valais.html