Fancy Wine MachinesTraditional Viticulture Meets Modern Wine Tasting
Christoph, Fabian and Stefanie hold a rechargeable card up in front of the air-conditioned refrigerators and select perfectly chilled wines that flow straight into their glasses. Stefanie and her colleagues spend the evening of the first tour in a fashionable wine location. Sitt Wein, in the south of Stuttgart, was first opened only two years ago, but is now one of the city’s best-loved bars, mostly due to its unique concept: guests can tap their own wines from the large range – be your own sommelier! Stefanie, Fabian and Christoph stand at their bar table until the last guests have gone, eating olives, cheese and baguette, and sampling the wines.
Lunchtime the following day finds them on a sun terrace in the middle of the vineyards, with wooden tables, sunshades and trees casting shadows. It’s day two of the tour through their homeland, and Christoph, Fabian and Stefanie visit places where you can also taste the region’s traditional wine production, such as the winepress of Wirtemberg College near Untertürkheim, a district of Stuttgart. Here, in the vineyards between Untertürkheim and Rotenberg, the three young winemakers want to sample the wines made by members of the vineyard cooperative. With the tavern, the regular wine-based events and a sustainable viticulture, Wirtemberg College campaigns to preserve a living wine culture and to protect the intact winegrowing country around Stuttgart for the future – a philosophy of wine that Stefanie, Fabian and Christoph can only agree with. The trio sample the house Riesling and look at the vineyards shining in the midday sun. The approximately 12-kilometre Stuttgart Wine Hiking Trail leads past Wirtemberg College. You can hike along it to the mausoleum on Rotenberg – the last stop on the route. For now, however, the trio are heading for another destination in their motorhome. Windows open, they drive through the summer winegrowing country back to Stuttgart’s vibrant city centre. From Marienplatz in the south of the city, it’s only a few minutes’ walk to Karlshöhe. Here, in the managed beer-garden at the top of Stuttgart’s Weinberg, there is no sign of the hustle and bustle of the city, which they have a great view of from their table.