Stargarder Land (wine region)

Stargarder Land is a small region for country wine in northeastern Germany, which was defined in an amendment to the German wine law on 4 March 2004. Located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, approximately 100 km north of Berlin, it is by far the northernmost official wine-growing area of Germany. The designation Mecklenburger Landwein is used for country wines from this region.[1]

Vineyards at Rattey manor

In two respects, Stargarder Land is different from all other wine regions in Germany. First, the 13 well-established German wine regions (usually referred to as Anbaugebiete) are all allowed to produce wine of all quality levels of the German wine classification, while Stargarder Land is only allowed to produce wines belonging to the lower part – Tafelwein (table wine) and Landwein (country wine) – and not the higher "quality wine" categories Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA) and Prädikatswein. Since the name of the wine region is always displayed prominently on the labels of German quality wines, but not the lesser categories, this is a significant difference. Second, Stargarder Land is only 3.7 hectares (9.1 acres) in size, which would be small even for a single vineyard site in other regions. The smallest of the 13 regions for quality wine is Saxony, which in 2006 had 416 hectares (1,030 acres) of vineyards, and the largest was Rheinhessen with 26,281 hectares (64,940 acres).[2] Thus, Stargarder Land is something of a newly created oddity in the German wine regulations, and the region is generally not considered as Germany's 14th Anbaugebiet, but rather as a smaller district which leads its own existence outside the regions.[1]

The region's wine is produced by two small winemaking cooperatives, one in Rattey (Schloss Rattey) operating 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres) and one in Burg Stargard on 0.2 hectares (0.49 acres). The amount of wine produced is so small that it is not sold commercially, but rather handed out as dividend to the members of the cooperatives.[1]