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Wine festival in Landau: 45 winemakers show their skills despite times of crisis!
Winemakers present their wines in Landau. Two days of wine fair and discussions on the future of Palatinate viticulture.
Wine festival in Landau: 45 winemakers show their skills despite times of crisis!
A very special wine experience is being celebrated in Landau today. The Landau-Südliche Weinstraße wine experience opened its doors in the afternoon and is attracting numerous wine fans to the city center. In the historic walls of the Frank-Loebschen Haus and the Old Department Store, 45 winemakers present their wines and show what the Palatinate has to offer in terms of wine culture. This year, for the second time, noble distillers from the Palatinate Distillers Association will also be taking part, adding another highlight to the event. The event will take place over two days, today until 9 p.m. and tomorrow from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
District Administrator Dietmar Seefeldt opened the event with a call for support for the regional wine industry. The tradition of the wine fair is firmly anchored in the calendar year and offers visitors not only the opportunity to taste different wines, but also to experience art. The exhibition in Galerie Z presents works by Markus Singer and underlines the event with cultural accents. There will also be a celebration tomorrow from 4 p.m. to midnight as part of the Fête de la musique - a must for all music and wine lovers.
Viticulture in crisis
The situation is alarming: experts predict that the number of wineries in Germany could halve in the coming years. There are reports about winemakers who are increasingly selling their wines abroad, such as Boris Kranz from Ilbesheim, who is having success in southern Europe. The entire industry is looking for solutions that should be presented at state, federal and EU levels. At the wine-growing days in Neustadt, around 2,000 visitors are expected who are looking forward to the presentations and discussions.
Challenges in international comparison
German winemakers are not only facing challenges in the Palatinate. While the French and Italians consume a lot of wine, Germany is in a different light: people here drink less wine in comparison. One example is the winemaker Jürgen Ellwanger, who, when trying to offer his regional wines in an Italian pizzeria, was disappointed to find that there was hardly any demand for German wines.
The Palatinate, as the second largest German wine-growing region, covers 228 square kilometers and is home to 144 wine towns with around 3,600 wineries that produce around 2.5 million hectoliters of wine annually. There are more than 100 million vines planted in this charming region, and the vine was brought to the Palatinate by the Romans around 2,000 years ago. This rich tradition is now being put to the test as the wine industry adapts to new circumstances.
We can only hope that the wine experience in Landau will not only be a feast for the senses, but also an impetus for winemakers to break new ground and meet the challenges in the market. The future of Palatinate viticulture is up in the air and it remains to be seen how the winegrowers and the farmers' and winegrowers' association will overcome this crisis.
For further information on current developments in the wine industry, we recommend reading reports from Rhine Palatinate, SWR and South Germans to pursue.