It all began because Christine and Burkhard Spiess loved going out to eat. At home, in the southernmost part of Rheinhessen, they enjoyed traveling to the neighboring Palatinate region with its famous restaurants. And one evening, they found themselves sitting in a beautiful cross-vaulted room. "We looked at each other and said: we actually have that at home too," says Christine Spiess.

Home is an old winery in the middle of Osthofen, now a booming wine-growing community very close to Worms. Today, Vis-à-Vis is one of the leading restaurants and attracts guests from near and far. For its combination of sophisticated regionally inspired cuisine, a comprehensive Rheinhessen wine list, and the wonderful redesign of the old stable, the Spiess family won the Great Wine Capital Best of Award 2017 in the wine gastronomy category.

This is the heart of the Rheinhessen wine country, where people have lived from and with wine for centuries. For centuries, the region around the Nibelungen city of Worms was a staging area for the armies of Europe, some of whom plundered and pillaged, while others stayed. It was the French under Napoleon who stayed the longest. They founded the province of Rheinhessen and brought peace, prosperity—and a distinct preference for good food.

"My parents used to keep chickens in there," says Christine with a smile, "the whole building was full of junk, my father's old workshop and the garbage cans." Ten years ago, the Spiess family started the Kuhkappelle project, which turned out to be a mammoth task. The winery is a typical Rheinhessen farmstead with a house on the street, a large courtyard, a huge barn, and a low stable on the side. "The house was built before 1830, and the stable was added in 1870," says Christine.

Inside, the ceiling immediately catches the eye: the cross vault is made of narrow red clay tiles laid close together; the clay discs are only dried, not fired. "When we started renovating, the plaster came off," says Christine, "so I asked: who's going to replaster it for us?" No one, as it turned out: the ceiling remained open and was sandblasted, and now the warm red ceiling creates a feeling of eternal sunset.

The furniture reflects the colors with warm brown, orange, and light sand tones. The restaurant seats 65, and at the entrance, a bar creates a lounge atmosphere and displays the wine bottles as if in a shop window. Burkhard Spiess started his own bottled wine production just five years ago, and the first wine was served at the restaurant's opening. Before that, Burkhard Spiess had helped his brother with production at the Spiess winery in Bechtheim for years, and now it was finally time to make his own wine.

Today, the Spiess branch in Osthofen owns 23 hectares of vineyards, half of which are planted with Pinot Noir. "This is the Wonnegau, we are spoiled by the weather here," says Christine. Our glasses sparkle with a wonderfully mineral and delicately fruity Riesling, dry of course, because Burkhard Spiess simply decided to produce only dry wines.

The restaurant's wine list therefore also includes wines from other wineries, such as Karl May and sparkling wines from Volker Raumland, to offer something for every taste. "It's somehow more open, and our guests like that," says Christine, looking at the wide-open courtyard gate. Yes, the people of Rheinhessen have become more self-confident and therefore more open, says the 50-year-old, adding that the 200th anniversary of Rheinhessen has suddenly made the region proud of itself.

And so they serve teriyaki salmon and rump steak with chili potatoes, truffle pasta, and fillet schnitzel from Ambri pork. But why is the restaurant called Vis-à-Vis?

"Oh, for us here, it stands for sitting opposite each other over wine, sharing stories and drinking," says Christine, "it comes from Napoleon – we say that a lot here."