The Kaisergarten Wine Hotel celebrates wine in a new way – and Rhine-Hessian hospitality

Alzey. When Petra Brand talks about Rheinhessen, her eyes light up. "It's the combination of wide open spaces and hills, open yet cozy," says the winemaker: "I couldn't live anywhere surrounded by mountains." The hallmarks of Rheinhessen, this ancient cultural region in the heart of Europe, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary as a region this year, are the wide hilly landscapes, occasionally interrupted by a village or a small church – and covered with grapevines.

The houses here are always a little forbidding, their doors opening only hesitantly to strangers. "No wonder in a region that was a transit zone for so long," says Brand. The Romans, the French, the Prussians—they all marched through Rheinhessen. They left behind an unusually cosmopolitan and open-minded people, great hospitality, and a lot of savoir-vivre. "We live a lot of liberté and égalité here," says Brand.

And they live and breathe wine: in 2014, Brand and her husband Andreas Biegler opened a new hotel in Alzey, the secret capital of Rheinhessen. The Kaisergarten wine hotel has 47 rooms, and you are embraced by wine as soon as you enter the lobby: bottle green, warm wood colors, the floor a gray terroir. A large table is reminiscent of a wooden barrel. On the walls: stones from the vineyards, rocks, an oyster.

Oysters? Indeed: 360 million years ago, a primeval sea flowed here; today, grapevines grow on the former cliffs, on ancient limestone soil. "You can talk a lot about wine," says Brand, "but when you collect shells with your guests in the vineyard, it's something else entirely. Suddenly, you can taste the terroir."

Vineyard hikes, cellar visits, and, of course, wine tastings—at the Weinhotel Kaisergarten, guests can immerse themselves in the world of wine. The rooms are decorated in wine colors, and the room numbers are written on wine bottles. At the bar, you can sample wines from Biegler & Brand, and an open door leads to the wine shop. "You can buy wine here 24 hours a day," says hotel manager Philipp Hengge, "a case of wine at one o'clock in the morning – no problem."

This is unique in Germany, where shops in rural areas usually close at 6:30 p.m. Rheinhessen is the largest wine-growing region in Germany, but most wine is still sold through discount stores. "It should be considered good form to drink wine from the region," sighs Brand. "At every wine tasting, we have to explain where Rheinhessen is and what it is," says Biegler.

His family have been winegrowers in Dorn-Dürkheim since the 17th century. Pinot Noir, Portugieser, Merlot – each wine has its own soil, ranging from limestone to the famous Rotliegend. "We want wines with bouquet and drinkability," says Brand, which is why there is a Scheurebe as well as a noble sweet Huxelrebe.

In 2008, Brand and Biegler merged their lives and their wineries into a 46-hectare enterprise. They established a wine shop, and guests loved the wine tours and tastings—and wanted a place to stay afterward. The six-room guesthouse quickly became too small, then the Kaisergarten presented itself. Now the 4-star hotel is "the stage for our wine," says Brand. A place to experience the Rheinhessen wine region – for this, the Weinhotel Kaisergarten received the Great Wine Capital Best of Wine Tourism Award in the accommodation category in 2016.