Gasconade County, Missouri in the context of "Meramec River"

Hermann is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in northern portion of Gasconade and Franklin Counties on the southern banks of the Missouri River. It was established on August 18, 1983, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by Jim Bias, president of Bias Vineyards & Winery, and Jim Held, president of Stone Hill Wine Co., on behalf of local vintners proposing the viticultural area in central Missouri, along the Missouri River, known as "Hermann." The wine appellation is named after the town of Hermann, about halfway between St. Louis and Jefferson City. The AVA expands across the northernmost hills of the Ozark Plateau with many of the 200 acres (81 ha) of vineyards planted along south-facing slopes. As of 2007, seven wineries were sourcing grapes in the appellation, including Missouri's largest winery, Stone Hill Winery.The area is a flood plain with alluvial soil deposits up to 30 feet (9.1 m) deep. Growing conditions have been compared to those in southern and eastern Germany. The hardiness zone is 6a. A wide variety of grapes are grown in Hermann, including Vitis vinifera, Vitis labrusca, and French hybrids.

The Missouri Rhineland (German: Missouri Rheinland) is a German American cultural region of Missouri that extends from west of St. Louis to slightly east of Jefferson City, located mostly in the Missouri River Valley on both sides of the river. The region overlaps with Little Dixie, a cultural region of central Missouri originally populated by “Old Stock” settlers from Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. Dutzow, the first permanent German settlement in Missouri, was founded in 1832 by an immigrant from Lübeck, the "Baron" Johann Wilhelm von Bock. The area was named by Rhinelanders who noticed its similarities in soil and topography to the Rhineland region of Europe, a wine-growing area around the Rhine river. Rhinelanders settled the region, along with other Germans; by 1860, nearly half of all settlers in Missouri Rhineland were from Koblenz, capital of the Rhine Province.

The Rhenish Germans resided in the Missouri Rhineland: St. Louis, Kansas City, and the towns Gasconade, Franklin, Lincoln, Montgomery, Osage, Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Pettis, Benton, Westphalia, Deepwater, and Henry. The German settlers of Hermann, known as "Deutschheim", came from the Rhineland through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.