Wine Project

Kempinski Young Line – Apprentices produce their own wine with Hans Lang

The wine project consisted of a small group of apprentices, showing an interest in wine, who have entered into the world of wine, from grape harvesting to bottling. The projects lasted for one and a half year and their self-made wine called ‘Falkensteiner Schützling’ was presented on the 18 October 2005 by our apprentices. Together with our restaurant manager and sommelier David Oesterreich and in cooperation with the Hans Lang vine-growing estate our apprentices worked eager and ambitiously. The result is amazing; a dry, zippy and fresh Riesling is born. It was hard work and we are all proud.

In January 2004 four young ladies and two young men in training for the occupations of restaurant expert, hotel expert and cook, between 17 to 22 years old were chosen. They started with full power into this project, resulting into an unique creation of a house wine called ‘Falkenstein Schützling’ for the Kempinski Hotel Falkenstein. But here again, study and exercise come before trying and tasting! They met for work meetings every second week. David Oesterreich and Hans Lang have worked out a detailed curriculum for them to cover. The agenda includes work in the vineyard, vinification, study of wine probe varieties and sensorics – all in practice. This is all about cramming, writing tests, holding lectures, visiting trade fairs and working on the product over and over again. The participating apprentices also designed the label and market the product externally. They did not really have it easy – but it was rewarded with much fun they had with their new favourite topic. As junior wine experts, they completed their voluntary additional training with an in-house examination. Glasses were filled with ‘their’ wine which they were all very much looking forward to. ‘It is just great to see how they all get involved. I have to say I have learned a lot during this experiment and found it personally very motivating. It is just as the saying goes: Wine is joy of life’, says David Oesterreich.

As a partner for the project we won over Hans Lang from Hattenheim, a Rheingau top vine producer. He brings in the required know-how, patience, humour, and last but not least the ability to continuously ‘feed’ the young people with new interesting information on the subject of wine. The group talked in one voice when it comes to what to fill the glass with: They were working together to create an individual, unique top-quality product, a Lagen-Cuvée (Single Vineyard Cuvée) of 100 per cent Riesling.