History
The region is said to have 800 years of wine growing history, although presumably on a smaller scale most of this time, since professional viticulture in the region apparently dates from 1853. Documentation of a viticultural tradition was necessary in order to be defined as a wine region in 2004.
The modern history of the region takes its beginning in 1999, when an association of "private winemakers" in Rattey was formed. In 2001, the Agricultural ministry of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was petitioned to grant Stargarder Land official status.
Because of the "wine lake", the European Union operates a system of planting rights to vineyards, where new vineyards only are allowed if planting rights are transferred from another vineyard where the vines are ripped up. EU applies this system to each member state, and in the German implementation of this system, the planting rights have been divided out by the federal German government to the wine-growing German states. This meant that Mecklenburg-Vorpommern didn't have any planting rights, and only could acquire such rights if they were transferred from another state. As a solution, Rhineland-Palatinate, where over 60% of the German vineyard surface (or over 60,000 ha) is situated, gave up 3.7 hectare of its planting rights. Thus, under present wine regulations, Stargarder Land is prohibited from growing in size.
Read more about this topic: Stargarder Land (wine Region)
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