Weinsalon Natürel 2019

5. Große Naturwein-Messe

For wine drinkers and those who want to become wine drinkers - whether with a hunch or without - discover the well-known and never tasted before.

45 winegrowers from six countries present their natural wines in the "Wein Salon Natürel" in the Stadtgarten. This is already the fourth natural wine fair in Cologne to open its doors on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 March 2019. It is aimed equally at restaurateurs, wine merchants and those interested in wine.

All exhibiting winegrowers work organically or biodynamically on their vineyards. The wines presented there are hand-picked, spontaneously fermented, unembellished, unclarified, mostly unsulphurised. Surk-ki Schrade, the organiser of the wine fair, knows only too well that this is not a matter of course: "Since wine is considered a luxury in the European Union, winegrowers may legally use up to 250 different additives and aids for wine production without having to write it on the label. Our visitors can enjoy pure fermented grape juice - during fermentation the motto is "Nix rein - nix raus" - at most a minimal dose of sulphite."

The connoisseurs call these wines "Vin Naturel". As the term is not yet protected and uniformly defined, Surk-ki Schrade tries to set its own standard with its exhibiting winegrowers: The natural wine fair RAW-Berlin of Isabelle Legeron still allows 70mg per litre of wine added sulphur. In Cologne, the maximum limit is 20 to 30mg sulphur, even though most of the wines on the exhibitor stands will be unsulphurised.

The date for the natural wine fair in Cologne was not chosen quite by chance. In a way, it sees itself as an OFF event for one of the largest wine fairs in the world, Prowein, which will start at the same time in Düsseldorf. The organiser Surk-ki Schrade has been one of the few wine dealers in Germany to sell these wines since 2009 with "La Vincaillerie". "If you are already spoilt for choice in Paris or New York as to which Vin Naturel wine shop to buy your wines from, you can count the number of merchants by the fingers of one hand all over Germany. Even though there are more and more wine bars with these wines in Berlin, for example, the awareness for natural wines is only slowly awakening," says Schrade.

fair, from 11 o'clock, hall

On admission, a glass will be handed out for a deposit of 2 euros, with which the wines can be tasted. Please note that admission to the fair can only be granted from the age of 16.

Admission fair: 10€ + 2€ glass deposit
Tickets: https://stadtgarten.ticket.io/2c3r2txx/?lang=en&view=table