Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and 6 wine queens.
The wine queens of 6 villages of the Rheingau – Hochheim, Eltville, Hattenheim, Kiedrich, Winkel and Geisenheim--were holding court in Hattenheim/Rheingau on April 11, 2009 and I had the pleasure of being in the middle of them.
A wine queen is an ambassador of the wine village or the wine region that she is representing of for the whole of Germany. Typically, each German wine village has its own wine queen. One of them is then chosen to represent the wine region. Finally, one of the 13 regional wine queens becomes the German wine queen and represents German wine around the world. The German Wine Institute/Mainz has organized the elections of the German wine queen since 1949. The 13 candidates that make it to the finals tend to be well-educated, articulate (in German and in English) young women able to represent German wines and wine-growers at home and abroad.
The current German wine queen is Marlies Dumsky, a charming young lady from the Franken region. She was in New York City earlier this year and did a session with Gary Vaynerchuck. It is episode #711.
Looking ahead, the next round of selections is in full swing. As for the Rheingau, the new regional wine queen will be crowned on September 6, 2009 in the castle Johannisberg. There are two candidates. One of them is Isabelle Diefenbach from Hochheim. I hope she will win. Then she would also be a candidate for the national competition which will take place on October 9, 2009.
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