Franken, known in English as Franconia, distinctive wine region in central germany, with a total of 6,176 ha/15,255 acres of vineyard in 2013. Severe winters and autumns as well as spring frosts are among the challenges that result in some of Germany’s most variable yields, but this has not deterred a near tripling of total vineyard area since the 1960s. The features for which Franken wine is best known are arguably neither its grapes nor its distinctive soils and wines, but the fact that nearly all of it is marketed in squat, flattened bocksbeutel bottles at prices most German growers can only dream of, and most is consumed within the region itself.
