Franken is the only wine region in Bavaria, spread along the Main as it loops through the hills west of Bamberg, with Würzburg at its centre. The climate is harshly continental: hot summers, cold winters and a short growing season that makes early ripening varieties the sensible choice and leaves late ones exposed. Three distinct soils divide the region, shell limestone around Würzburg, red sandstone in the west and keuper marl in the east.

Silvaner is the regional grape and Franken makes the best of it anywhere, dry, earthy and firmly structured rather than aromatic. Müller-Thurgau covers more ground in practice, and Bacchus and Riesling fill out the whites. The wine is sold in the Bocksbeutel, a flat round flask used here since the eighteenth century and protected by law, which makes a bottle from Franken recognisable across a room and awkward in every wine rack ever made.