Landwein: Flouting Rules to Follow Instinct

By

Katharina Matheis

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Volume 01, Identity & Intersection •
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Photo credit Andreas Durst

Germany seems to require an official examination for everything. Qualitätsweine (“quality wines”) are no exception. Those that fail the test are slapped with the Landwein label. In April 2015, a group of top growers from Baden, deep in Germany’s southwest, joined forces to rebel against the official inspection system. Flouting what officials would think of as a demotion, they decided to wear Landwein as a badge of honor. Baden has long been seen as the kinder, more conventional Germany. Thus Landwein is a direct challenge to that sensibility, one that takes on more significance because it seemed the unlikeliest of places for revolt.  It happened the way so many…

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Katharina Matheis is German wine journalist. She was born and raised amid the vineyards of Rheinhessen and worked fo several years as a reporter for WirtschaftsWoche before training as a certified sommelier. Since then she has focused on topics in wine. Her articles have appeared in Handelsblatt, WirtschaftsWoche, Gault&Millau, Spiegel, Feinschmecker, and more. Her favorite subject to cover is organic viticulture. Together with Sven Prange she recently founded the guide sustainable enjoyment neigschmeckt-magazin.de. She lives in Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg.

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