Klaus Zimmerling was bored with his mechanical engineering job when the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall gave him the impetus to turn his life around.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” he said of the momentous event 30 years ago that led to German reunification a year later. “Then I slowly realized that things would change and it was the occasion to start something new.”
Ditching his job in Dresden, he retrained as a winegrower and invested in a parcel of land perched on the heights of the city. Today, the 60-year-old is the proud owner of a vineyard that produces vintages which have been served in Michelin star restaurants like Noma in Denmark.
Photo: AFP
Not just Zimmerling’s business but the entire winemaking industry in Saxony has seen a rebirth since German reunification.
While the end of the communist East largely spelled the collapse of the region’s industries, small-hold vineyards sprang up as state-owned farming cooperatives that once produced food for the masses were dissolved, split up and sold off to private owners.
Zimmerling counted among those who pounced on one of these parcels.
Recalling the early days of his business, he said: “What was best was the crazy feeling of freedom.”
Strolling among the grapevines planted along terraces in his vineyard on a warm autumn’s day, Zimmerling plucked off a grape, inspected it and smelled it before popping it into his mouth.
“These little grapes have a more intense flavour than the big ones. Look, they’re already almost orange. The taste will be fantastic,” he said, seemingly already tasting the Riesling to emerge.
‘IMPROVED QUALITY’
Wine production in the Elbe valley goes back more than 850 years. It saw its zenith between the 16th and 18th centuries but later crumbled under successive wars and the whims of the changing weather and river flows.
After World War II, wine production restarted during communist rule, with farming cooperatives put in charge of keeping it flowing for local restaurants.
Wine also served as a bartering tool, something that was common during the period, says Zimmerling.
But bottles that could be purchased in then East Germany were often imported from fellow Soviet bloc countries like Hungary.
“After reunification, things really developed,” according to the Saxony federation of the wine-growing sector. Several vineyards were sold and private properties created and, most crucially, “the quality of wine improved greatly”.
In May 1992, the Saxony wine route was inaugurated. Along 55km between Pira, Dresden, Meissen and Diesbar-Seusslitz, trails for hikers and bikers were cleaned up to help bring in tourists.
While Saxony’s wine-growing industry remains small, providing only 0.4 percent of total German production, it is attracting attention for its quality but also evoking a certain nostalgia for former easterners.
Hotels in the Elbe valley have reported bookings jumping from half a million in 1994 to 1.37 million last year, said local hotelier federation Elbland Dresden.
‘ARROGANCE’
Zimmerling, who purchased the vineyard in 1992 after completing an apprenticeship in an Austrian winegrowing region, grew his holding bit by bit.
Today, it covers about 4.5 hectares, on which he tries out a variety of grapes.
“I wanted first to make organic wine, but then also obtain quality that is unexpected for the region,” he said.
His business isn’t particularly profitable, he conceded, without divulging figures though he noted that his wife, a sculptor, brings more income home.
Today, he produces with a handful of employees about 15,000 litres of wine a year, including some that is prized among the best quality in Germany.
While most of his vintage is consumed locally, some makes its way to Poland, Denmark and even Japan.
Some is sold too in western German cities, but three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Zimmerling bemoans that east German wine still suffers from an image problem.
“Until today, they refuse to admit in the west ... that wine produced in eastern Germany can be good,” he said, calling out a certain “arrogance.”
Thankfully, he added, “such prejudices don’t exist abroad.”
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built
RSS