The record is unusually exact: in April 1659 the abbot of Castell had Germany's first documented Silvaner vines planted, and Franken never let the grape go. While the rest of Germany handed its slopes to Riesling, Franconia kept faith with Silvaner on the shell limestone above the Main's meanders, where the grape turns earthy, dry and quietly stony.
Its bottle is its banner: the bocksbeutel, the flattened round flask protected since 1728, recognisable across a room and stubbornly resistant to wine racks. The wine inside is the anti-Riesling — texture and ground instead of fruit and flash — which is why Germany's sommeliers, asked what they drink themselves, so often name a Franken Silvaner and change the subject.