Johann Steinmann stands atop his family's Sommerhausen vineyards where they have been producing wine since 1653. -- Photos by Alan Findlay

Standing at the pinnacle of a broad, rolling hill in German wine country and gazing down at the lined fields of countless vineyards is a moment to breathe in, swish around and savour.

Green and purple grapes hang heavy on autumn vines that run down the slopes toward the terracotta rooftops below.

Don't pause too long, however. A difficult decision lies ahead. No, not Liebfraumilch versus Blue Nun. Not in favour of Sylvaner. Not even red or white. This afternoon's dilemma is between driver and 3-wood.

Southern Germany's 13 wine regions, such as Rheinhessen, Baden and Fraconia, offer up surprises that begin in their ancient cellars and rise up to tee boxes looking down on the majestic countryside. Mixing the two makes even the pot bunkers lying in wait look a little less daunting.

The locals know as well as anyone they're internationally renowned among the general public for neither the quality of their wine nor the quality of their golf. At an initial glance, it seems as unlikely a visit as Italy in October for its beer and polka music. But not unlike the sleeper hit movie Sideways that charmingly mingled wine with golf, Germany offers its own version of the combination that will surprise most. According to one rather entrepreneurial Franconian winemaker, the right German wine (his, naturally) can even cure an ailing golf swing.

130-year-old cellar

Josef Deppisch stands amidst two rows of oval-ended, oak barrels in his family's 130-year-old cellar swirling a glass of a recent concoction called Golf Wine. Wearing a remarkable wooden bow tie with his blue-checked, short-sleeved shirt, the broad-smiling Deppisch is hoping to literally bottle the rising popularity of golf in Germany with a wine to match. The way he sees it, as a growing number of Europeans tee up, the more they'll need a suitable refreshment like a light and fruity tasting Rivaner. The back label of his golfing elixir even promises to cure the hitches in any swing, though stops short of issuing a money-back guarantee.

"It's just beginning: Golf fever," Deppisch says.

Not surprisingly, there is a more serious and historic tradition of German winemaking.

Down the road in Sommerhausen, another Franconian village, more particular wine lovers can sample the tradition of wine-making that dates back to the 12th century.

The town itself sits in a small valley across the Main River from Winterhausen. The local joke is that the best thing about Winterhausen is its view of Sommerhausen.

The town is still surrounded by Middle Aged ramparts, towers and gates.

Stepping into the Steinmann family's ancient cellar is a trip through time and 11 generations of wine making. Racks and columns of bottles sparkle in the cool room's candlelight.

Far from simply the sweet whites most people would associate with Germany, the cellar offers a variety of everything from "trockens" to ice wines alive with the aromas and tastes of plums, apricots, exotic fruits and honey.

Pal Naess, editor of Norwegian golf magazine, tees off at the Rheinhessen Golf Hotel in St. Johann, Germany.

Steffen Schindler of the Deutches Weininstitut said his group is trying to get stories like the Steinmann family out to the rest of the world. Germans, he explains, enjoy the fruits of a rich and thriving domestic wine industry that includes everything from world-renowned rieslings to Pinot Noirs.

Ask the rest of the world about German wines, however, and the most common response is Liebfraumilch or Blue Nun. Schindler said German winemakers had in the past failed to change with the tastes as people began preferring drier whites. German wines and labels have become more sophisticated, but they still face an uphill battle to erase the Liebfraumilch stigma.

"I remember 10 years ago we had to beg people at wine fairs, 'Please try our German wines -- you will not die,'" he says with a laugh.

Critics began taking notice in recent years, but the battle remains in convincing the drinking public in growing markets like North America.

German-exported wine remains overwhelmingly white, but visit many of its wine-growing regions and there are a wide variety of reds. Baden, for example, makes almost as much red wine (mostly Pinot Noir, or Spatburgunder) as white.

Josef Deppisch sporting a dashing wooden bow tie, shows off one of his golf wines. The golf balls drop out of the bottle's false bottom.

Think German golf, and the effect is similar. From the outside, most people think of professional golfer Bernhard Langer and little else.

Inside Germany's borders, the sport is flourishing. With more than 300,000 golfers and growing, the number of courses around the country increased by 70% during the 1990s to number more than 500.

A sampling of them offers a variety of experiences.

Whether atop the hills or on a flatter expanse, the courses tended to be fairly open, with limited trees but nasty patches of fescue that could quickly drive unlucky players back to the wine cellar. While they generally look friendly, and one hole can occasionally blend into the next, each course tends to have a unique set of teeth.

Golfers are frequently caught scratching their heads on some courses as they contemplate a dizzying number of blind shots (who said Germans were humourless?)

Burghotel Gotzenburg is one of the many unique accommodations in German wine country -- it allows visitors to sleep like royalty in the castle.

Unaware North Americans might also be caught scratching their heads even harder as their shots consistently fall 10 yards or so short of the greens. Logically, Germans have followed the European tradition of marking off their holes in metres rather than yards. Try explaining Canada's hybrid of metric and imperial measurements to Germans and the scratching of heads becomes a course-wide epidemic.

Serious golfers would be well advised to pack their own clubs, however. On the course billed as Tiger Woods' German favourite (he competed at the Heidelburg area's St. Leon-Rot once at the Deutche Bank SAP Open), loaners fall well short of the super-sized driver madness that has gripped Canada and the U.S. Left-handers should be especially wary. At one picturesque nine-hole course overlooking the Main River valley, golfers were handed a set of two irons and a putter forged sometime during the Cold War and challenged to chip their way down holes stretching as long as 420 metres.

Needless to say, a glass of Mr. Deppisch's swing-healing Golf Wine was a welcome sight indeed by the round's end.

BOTTOM LINE

Grape-laden vines overlooking the Franconian village of Sommerhausen.

Getting there

Both Air Canada and Lufthansa offer direct flights from Toronto to Frankfurt, which is the ideal landing spot for a tour of Germany's 13 wine regions.

Accommodations

- Golf Hotel Rheinhessen, St. Johann, visit golfhotel-rheinhessen.de.

- Burghotel Gotzenburg, visit burghotel-goetzenburg.de.

- Fairway Hotel, St. Leon-Rot, e-mail info@fairway-hotel.de

Other contacts

- Golfplatz St. Leon-Rot, log onto golfclub-stleon-rot.de.

- For a listing of German golf courses, try golfeurope.com

German wine institute

For information, visit germanwines.de or e-mail info@dwi-dwf.de.