Mainz celebrity vineyard
What do Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and former ZDF director Markus Schächter have in common? They and many other prominent figures have planted vines in Mainz's celebrity vineyard at the foot of the citadel in recent years. Markus Schächter, together with the then Cardinal of Mainz Karl Lehmann, even had the honor of planting the first two vines on May 28, 2007.
The Mainz Wine Senate, which has been promoting wine culture in Mainz since its foundation in 2005, created the celebrity vineyard with a view of Mainz's old town. Every year, the celebrity planters enjoy a bottle of wine from their own vine.
Offshoot of the oldest vine in the world
On May 26, 2016, the celebrity vineyard welcomed a famous new addition: on the occasion of the WINZER-EURO 2016 final at the Mewa Arena in Mainz, the Slovenian winegrowers' team brought with them a cutting from the world's oldest vine, which grows in the Slovenian city of Maribor.
Danilo Steyer, president of the Slovenian winegrowers' team and president of Family Estate Winzer Slovenia, brought the valuable vine with him and planted it himself. Norbert Weber (President of Deutscher Weinbau e.V.), Robert Lönarz (President of WEINELF Deutschland e.V. and Campus Manager of Geisenheim University) and Rudolf Knoll (wine journalist, spokesperson for WEINELF Deutschland e.V., Member of the Mainz Wine Senate) as well as Mainz Mayor Michael Ebling and, representing the Mainz Wine Senate, Werner Horn and other senators were present when the cutting from the world's oldest noble grapevine found a new home in Mainz's Prominent Vineyard.
