September is a glorious time to visit Germany – the weather is often more settled than in midsummer and the holiday traffic jams are a bad memory. For visitors the end of summer is usually synonymous with Oktoberfest, but if beer is not your tipple of choice and the attendant hike in Munich hotel rates isn’t your idea of a warm welcome, it pays to discover a far more refined – yet equally bibulous – travel experience.

So head instead via Frankfurt or Stuttgart to the Palatinate, that favoured corner of southwest Germany that abuts Alsace. It‘s an intriguing mirror image of its French neighbour. A certain Latin savoir- vivre aside, it shares with Alsace a history of alternating French and German control; at the height of his pomp, Napoleon’s writ ran the length of the Rhine and the region’s capital – the cathedral city of Mainz – was, briefly, French Mayence.

As in Alsace, the blend of cultures adds spice to an already appealing mix. Castle-topped crags and dark forests give the landscape an unmistakably Germanic stamp. Yet the villages beneath the Pfälzer Wald’s wooded hills combine tall gables and half-timbering with sun-friendly colours, cheerful shutters and a manorial hauteur; this may be an agricultural region, but it’s certainly not the sticks.

This is a warmer, drier, sunnier, Germany than the one foreign visitors may be used to. Almond trees line country lanes; fig and Aleppo pine add a southern note to the countryside and in the spring, proud winemakers bring lemon trees out of storage to grace their weingüter for the duration of the season. The Romans were here: they brought the vine and left their imprint in the modest ruins still hidden among the vineyards.

With impeccable German efficiency a well-signposted tourist route – the Deutsche Weinstrasse (German Wine Route) – meanders north for 85km from the French border at Wissembourg, linking many of the region’s best wineries and most enchanting villages. Drinking and driving mix no better here than anywhere else: for much of the route, farm tracks parallel the road, allowing you to wobble in relative safety from one tasting to another by bike. For those who feel that they need to earn their wine, there are a couple of long-distance hiking trails too. But the obvious solution is to slow the pace and spend a night or two.

At Nett’s Restaurant in Gimmeldingen, just outside the Weinstrasse ‘capital’, Neustadt, you can sleep in custom- designed comfort in a pair of converted houses. On the opposite side of the village, Weingut Mugler offers boutique hotel accommodation in the south wing of the winery or in the early 19th-century vintner’s house opposite.

Lovers of luxury gravitate to Deidesheim, the most overtly chic of the Weinstrasse’s villages, with a track record as a VIP haunt. During his long years as German chancellor, Helmut Kohl brought visiting heads of state to the village to sample his favourite dish, saumagen – a haggis-like concoction stuffed into a pig’s stomach. Like haggis, it tastes better than it sounds.

Kohl brought his guests to the Deidesheimer Hof, a lovely, rambling, traditional five-star hotel with a sunny terrace fronting the marketplace. Nowadays there’s more than saumagen on the menu, since it has a Michelin- starred restaurant, Schwarzer Hahn, which serves modern fare such as pea foam and strawberry gravy alongside veal and halibut. More contemporary style – and another Michelin-starred restaurant – can be found at the Ketschauer Hof, a modern conversion of a former manor house and a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World collection.

A little to the north of Deidesheim, the little country town of Freinsheim is more low key in its charm, with perfectly preserved medieval walls encircling a historic core of toytown dimensions. Freinsheim is a gastro hotspot too – home to the region’s longest-established gourmet temple, Luther, and to the Gault-Millau-garlanded Freinsheimer Hof, which occupies a beautiful former weingut.

Both offer a handful of guest rooms for those who wish to turn their gastronomic pilgrimage into an overnight stay.

Central to the appeal of any wine- growing region is, of course, the wine itself. Favoured by its dry, sunny climate the Palatinate produces not only crisp, classically German Riesling and Silvaner but also Gewürztraminer and, increasingly, creditable Pinot Noir – a very pleasant surprise for those to whom German red wines remain an unknown quantity. The region’s wineries are mostly small, family affairs, and though most are open to visitors, judicious oenophiles would be wise to call ahead before descending. Winemakers well worth tracking down include August Ziegler in Maikammer – three times German winemaker of the year – and the patrician Sekt house Reichsrat von Buhl in Deidesheim. The latter is right across the street from the Deidesheimer Hof, so you won’t even have to drive.

NETT’S RESTAURANT
www.nettsrestaurant.de +49 6321 60175

WEINGUT MUGLER
www.weingut-mugler.de +49 6321 66062

DEIDESHEIMER HOF
www.deidesheimerhof.de +49 6326 96870

KETSCHAUER HOF
www.ketschauer-hof.com +49 6326 70000

LUTHER
www.luther-freinsheim.de +49 6353 93480

FREINSHEIMER HOF
www.restaurant-freinsheimer-hof.de +49 6353 5080410

AUGUST ZIEGLER
www.august-ziegler.de +49 6321 9578 0

REICHSRAT VON BUHL
www.reichsrat-von-buhl.de +49 63 26 / 96 50 19