Peter Bohn of Weingut Schloss-Proschwitz on East Germany

This show was published 26 September 2008

Overview

Peter Bohn is the marketing manager for Schloss-Proschwitz in the heart of Saxony which is a wine region located in the east of Germany between Prague and Hamburg. It has beautiful scenery and stretches 40-50 km along the River Elbe with vineyards established for more than 800 years. The wine region is 470 hectares making it the 2nd smallest region in Germany. Schloss-Proschwitz estate has 80 hectares with 30 hectares under vine currently and new plantings coming on stream.

Peter Bohn of Weingut Schloss-Proschwitz talks to us about wine production before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Schloss-Proschwitz were one of first producers in 1996 to gain VDP status. In the 1990s the closed system in East Germany made it difficult to buy the right equipment and machinery for making wine and so the resulting wine was not such great quality. The weather varies from year to year so every vintage is different and producers need to be very flexible from one year to next. The vineyards are mostly harvested by hand.

After the Berlin Wall came down the owner of Schloss-Proschwitz had to buy back the grapes, the land and the castle but they had no cellar to make the wine in. So they purchased a military truck from the co-operative and drove the grapes 400km the famous producer Castel to produce the wine for them. They then drove the bottled wine back to the estate. This was in 1991. They built a garage estate which until 1996 had only a gas burner to heat it during temperatures as low as -28 degrees celsius. They now have a modern premises which is used to host 500 events a year of fine dining and wine tasting. Every year or so they try do something new, their latest venture is to open a restaurant.

For more info visit www.schloss-proschwitz.de

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