The wine appellation is located on the southern side of the Missouri River near the town of Hermann, about halfway between St. Louis and Jefferson City.

Pioneer leader George Bayer selected a location along the southern banks of the Missouri river for its similarities to the Rheingau region that many of the settlers came from.

The founders wanted the area to be a safe haven for German immigrants in America where they could maintain their culture and heritage despite the pressures to assimilate.

The large underground cellars of Stone Hill Winery were converted to mushroom farms and most of the grapevines were pulled out and the land planted with corn, oat, wheat and barley fields.

Follow the repeal of prohibition in 1933, it took several decades for the Hermann wine industry to recover with Stone Hill reopening in 1965, Hermannhof in 1974 and Adam Puchta in 1989.