German history: Crisis and decline, 1500–1650

The Thirty Years War, which ravaged Germany in the early 17th century, left few viticultural regions unscathed, but the real problem arose from the loss of manpower through the casualties of war. The decline in exports of alsace wines is symptomatic of the difficulties. Wine consumption was dictated by fashion, and by 1500 taste was moving away from the often spiced (see flavoured wines) white wines of Alsace towards those of the palatinate and the rheingau, as well as to the lighter wines of franken. At the same time, demand for heavier red wines was increasing, so that Alsace found itself having to plant more pinot noir vines together with ‘Lampersch’ (a red wine variety from Lombardia in Italy) to compete with imports from France and the Mediterranean.