Outstanding Vinotheks

Many people in the Pfalz hear 'Fritz Walter' and think of the outstanding football player from this region, but there's also an outstanding winegrower by the same name, who founded his estate in 1832 in Niederhorbach.

From the first moment that Helga and Willibald Weisbrodt took over the estate in 1972, they also dreamed of having their own restaurant. That dream came true in 1985 with the opening of the "Stammhaus." 

It's been over 40 years since Josef Köhr took over this family-run estate with a history stretching back 300 years. It's located on the western edge of the hills that ring the Rhine rift, with a side-by-side mix of soil types that ensures tremendous diversity in the wines. 

In 1987, director Wim Wenders created a cinematic monument to the universe over the German capital with his film "Der Himmel über Berlin". Perhaps the architect Professor Bernhard Focht had something similar in mind when he sketched a cube on the back of a serviette in 2012.

No, he doesn't want to call this space a vinothek. "We are a wine bar," says Georg Meier, 36, a fifth-generation winemaker in the small village of Weyher in the Palatinate Forest. He knows how important a unique selling point is in this much-visited growing region.

Nicole Graeber says that visitors to her corner of the Southern Wine Route will be charmed by its almost Mediterranean flair. And who are we to argue?

The vinothek owned by Helmut and Christel Isler is certainly easy to find these days. While it was a bit off the beaten track up until a few years ago, the married winegrowers decided a relocation was in order and put it on the map in more ways than one. 

A majestic and distinctive panorama opens up around Weingut Schwedhelm, situated on the highest point of the Zellertal, well outside the community boundaries.

The Weinhaus Anton is relatively young by Pfalz standards. Ralph Anton took over the business in 2004 from his father Karl, who himself started here in Kirrweiler with a distillery and only later, in the 1970s, began bottling his own wines.

This is as high as it gets, at least in this neighborhood. At 212 meters above sea level (abbreviated N.N. in German), there's a reason why the crown jewel of the Winzergenossenschaft Herxheim (Herxheim Winegrowers Cooperative) is named "Vinothek 212 N.N."

The Barth Family unveiled their estate's new 100 square meter vinothek in November 2014. Not long after opening their creation in Hattenheim, on the north bank of the Rhine, the coveted "Insider Award" rolled in.

The thing with the titles needs a bit of explanation. The man's name is Frederik; that's how he likes to introduce himself, because the relaxed tone corresponds to the visitors he meets at his winery.