20213041_WGDE2021_ENGL

The Dürkheimer Fuchsmantel site below the Flaggen Tower
BREAD, SAUSAGE AND WINE –
BUT PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK
The Pfalz knows how to enjoy itself despite Corona.
Its joie de vivre is infectious!
WORDS ULRICH SAUTTER
The 500ml bottle of hand sanitiser
with its little pump at the top is
labelled ‘Forster Kirchenstück
Grosses Gewächs 2012‘. It makes you
smile as you squirt and rub it in your
hands before entering the Vinothek, or
wine shop, at the Bürklin-Wolf estate in
Wachenheim. Sadly, of course, the liquid
does not smell of Kirchenstück Riesling –
but at the very least of grappa as the heady
alcohol fumes pervade the layers of the
obligatory face mask. It is summer 2020,
Corona is omnipresent and even the joyous
Pfalz groans under the strain of hygiene
regulations and the fear of infection.
At least the Pfälzer have not lost their
sense of humour: the deliberately
mis-labelled sanitiser is just a tiny sign
and proof of their eternal love of mischief.
Yet, in a region that usually boasts 300
village wine fêtes a year, the virus has put
a particular dampener on fun. Even the
proud, annual Dürkheimer Wurstmakt,
the world’s greatest wine fête attracting as
many as 60,000 revellers in recent years,
had to be cancelled in 2020 – for the first
time since the end of the Second World
War. Neither have the Pfalz hospitality
businesses escaped this crisis unscathed.
In the newly-fashionable subregion of
Zellertal, the freshly-renovated Hotel
Schwarzer Herrgott had to wait until the
end of August for all security measures to
be in place before beer garden, wine stand
and courtyard café could open to the
public. But owner and landlady Karin
Hellert nonetheless reports two “fabulous
months” in September and October.
322 falstaff Wine Guide Germany 2021