There are very few hotspots for natural wine in Germany. And the hottest of those spots is found in a medium sized city: Bielefeld. Yes, Bielefeld, not Berlin. Heinrich sein Enkel opened its doors in 2013 as a wine bar dedicated to natural wines. Its owner Torben has also a web-shop selling the same wines he does in his bar. He was one of the first people I got in touch with after our adventure started and was always there to help plus an excellent supplier of wine 🙂
And as he is selling our grape juice it was just a question of time when I would visit him. Which I did last Friday. Torben had organized a tasting with Jean-Pierre Rietsch and me. Burden and honor equally – if you’re a regular reader of our blog you know how much I admire this guy and his wines. I brought along a few barrel samples and we spent the night chatting with all the visitors about wine in general and the natural one in particular. It’s fun having such an open minded crowd to talk to. And in-between there was loads of time to talk to Jean-Pierre. Currently resulting in every second conversation I have including a sentence beginning with “oh by the way Jean-Pierre said …”.
Torben poured wine after wine in our glasses opening countless bottles to delight us with deliciousness after deliciousness produced by the best French wine-growers (plus Craig Hawkins as you can see in the picture above containing Jean-Pierre). A fabulous host full of passion for the world of natural wine juggling with all the wines he loves behind his counter. Not to forget the food: Torben hired a baker & cook to make everything offered from scratch. Croissants? Check. Bread for a sandwich served that evening? Check. All kinds of quiches and cakes made with eggs from a local farmer (“you really taste the difference!”), wonderful cheese and meat, … all very straight (“we don’t do soy-milk, we have mild, that’s it”) and so probably provoking but also full of character.
Even if you’re not close: this place is worth a visit! Thanks for the evening, I’ll be back.