Baden stretches more than 400 kilometres down the southwest corner of Germany, from the Tauber valley to the Swiss border, facing Alsace across the Rhine. It is the warmest of the German regions, the only one classified in the same EU climate zone as most of France, and that shows in the wines: riper, fuller and more often dry than the German norm.

Pinot is the regional signature. Spätburgunder covers more than a third of the vineyard, with Grauburgunder and Weissburgunder close behind, a family that reflects the Burgundian monks who planted much of this ground. The Kaiserstuhl, an extinct volcano rising out of the Rhine plain, is the most distinctive site, its terraced loess and volcanic soils producing the region's densest wines. Cooperatives handle a large share of the crop, which has kept Baden less visible abroad than its quality deserves.