It all began with a few bottles of wine under a bridge, some hammocks overlooking the Rhine, and a handful of young winemakers who simply wanted to share their wines and their knowledge of wine with other young people their own age. “It’s crazy how this has all turned out,” Alina Engel marvels: Today, ten years later, the Mainz Wine Salon—now known as the Rheinhessen Wine Salon—has sparked an unprecedented rush for wines from Rheinhessen’s young winemakers, has garnered awards and acclaim, and serves as a model for wine presentations throughout Germany.

It was probably that very special atmosphere: right on the Rhine promenade in Mainz, with that wonderful view of the Rhine, in the heart of the Great Wine Capital, young Rheinhessen winemakers served their wines to a young, urban crowd once a month. The whole event takes place outdoors; guests simply sit on benches, low stone walls, or whatever else the promenade has to offer. And they enjoy a selection of 40 to 60 wines as the sun sets and the stars come out—and that’s meant literally.

In 2008, 20 young winemakers from all over Rheinhessen founded the Mainzer Weinsalon; in 2009, the association decided to bring their wine bottles to Mainz to raise awareness of Rheinhessen wines in the state capital. The concept was a huge hit right from the start: “It was totally laid-back in the beginning,” says Aline Engel, “the food was homemade, we hung up hammocks, and people would just stop by after work.”

Serving wine in such a relaxed, open-air atmosphere—that was something new, and on top of that, the winemakers themselves were there in person, chatting with the guests and explaining their wines. Soon the wines were selling out every evening, and starting in 2013, the whole thing really took off—“that’s when we realized: we needed proper logistics,” Alina explains.

The After Work Wine Lounge moved to the fountain in front of the Hilton Hotel in Mainz, just a few meters further away, where there was more space, and the winemakers purchased their own bar, refrigerated trucks, and pavilions for rainy days. “Our motto is: to give Rheinhessen wine the stage it deserves,” says Alina, who is herself a young winemaker at the Meyerhof winery in Flonheim, Rheinhessen, and joined the Weinsalon in 2013.

More than 1,000 guests now flock to the wine salon on the first Tuesday of every month during the summer season. "We're always amazed that people just don't want to go home," says Alina. "It's nine o'clock, then ten, but they're still sitting there – it's become a really long after-work party." And it has spread: a few years ago, the wine salon at the Landesmuseum in Mainz was added, and since then, once a month, the young winemakers' wine bar has been combined with culture such as live music in the courtyard – right in the middle of the government district.

This is precisely why the Mainz Wine Salon received the Best of Wine Tourism Award 2020 in the "Wine and Culture" category: the jury praised the combination of wine, culture, and young winemakers for creating a unique atmosphere of wine culture. In fact, it was precisely this concept that really brought the quality and diversity of Rheinhessen wines to the attention of the people of Mainz.

This is now also happening in Darmstadt, where the wine salon moved in 2018 to the student city 40 kilometers away in neighboring Hesse. "People there love the concept and they have many more questions than the people of Mainz," says Engel, "but the people of Darmstadt are incredibly interested in the region and our wines." Well, wine, culture, and a balmy summer night – what more could you want?

But that wasn’t the case for the summer of 2020—the Weinsalon, now known as Weinsalon Rheinhessen, fell victim to the COVID-19 crisis that year. Yet that hasn’t stopped the young Rheinhessen winemakers in the least: “We’ve created a ‘Weinsalon to Go,’” says Alina: A box containing twelve bottles of wine from various winemakers, delivered right to guests’ doors. The tasting package is available in dry, semi-dry/sweet, and mixed varieties. “It’s in high demand, even though we’ve done virtually no advertising,” Alina reports. Wine lovers are bringing that Rhine feeling home in this way, she explains: “Then the wine bottle just bubbles away at home.”