As I had just returned from BIOFACH in Nuremberg for the weekend, I unfortunately did not manage to visit the WEINmesse berlin 2020 on the first day of the event. On Saturday, however, the time had come and I made my way to the Messe Berlin – the entrance to the WEINmesse berlin this time was at Hall 21 in the Masurenallee.

The fair opened at 1:00 pm – although I didn’t get there until around 3:30 pm – and a large crowd of guests were already waiting in front of the entrance area for admission. The reason for this was a short stop of admission due to the big rush. This year, halls 21 & 22 were available to exhibitors and guests and by 3 pm they were already so full that the fair management was forced to react with a stop of admission.

From the first official WEINmesse berlin in 1993, the event has grown steadily from around 70 exhibitors and 1,800 visitors to the present day. As a result, it has become necessary to change premises more than once – today with over 330 exhibitors, more than 4.000 wines and around 25,000 visitors expected, the event has found its home at Messe Berlin – and there is still plenty of potential for scaling up.

The WEINmesse berlin has thus been developing from an initially small trade fair into a new visitor magnet every year since its 25th anniversary as part of the Messe Berlin event portfolio. At just 17 euros per person, compared with others of its kind, this fair is a real bargain and always a reason to get to know new wines.

After about half an hour the visitors continued as usual. After checking their tickets, they hurried to the glass dispenser – visiting the WEINmesse berlin without a glass is only half the fun.

For all those who wanted to lay a better foundation before the tasting session – in other words, all those who showed up without having had a proper breakfast – a handful of stands had what it needs.

So there was not only an almost unmanageable amount of the finest cheeses such as mountain cheese, alpine flower cheese, white & red wine cheese, pecorino & parmesan, and much more, but also bacon & sausages such as garlic bacon, beef, venison and pork ham, porcini mushroom, fennel & truffle salami, chimney root and many extraordinarily tasty, handmade breads.

Of course, there was also some sweet things. At the stand of Mallek`s Gourmet Dreams, for example, you could find processed exclusive sweets as well as raw masses such as marzipan, organic almonds, nougat with whole hazelnuts, pressed cranberries, Turkish honey and much more in excellent quality.

The small chocolate sweets at the Goufrais stand were also very tasty – “Der kühle Genuss” – so to speak a more noble version of the popular ice cream confection – comes in a Gugelhupf look.

This delicacy is produced in Weil am Rhein, where gluten, nuts and alcohol are not added at all – only the purest cocoa is used here as a separating agent.

From here on, you could concentrate on the essentials – the almost endless wine tasting. It made sense to draw up a “battle plan” beforehand on the basis of the free list of exhibitors (there were extra note pages for this), so that you could taste the wines in a halfway orderly fashion, and without having to make unnecessary “loops” through the halls.

Basically, there was everything the heart of the wine lover desires, from white to rosé to red, from dry to sweet, from natural to sparkling, from cheap to exorbitantly expensive – it was all there.

A few exhibitors also offered other products based on wine, for example the Deppisch family – Weinhaus Anker – with their fine and exquisite wine jelly. There were two varieties of this at the WEINmesse berlin, one with chilli – something completely different.

Of course, there were also some BIO wineries at the fair this year. For example, the BIO-Winery Martin was striking, which on the one hand presented itself with colourful bottles and gimmick design, but on the other hand also referred to the family tradition.

Also interesting was the Silvaner from the Rothe Winery – a real organic product through and through. In a conversation with Manfred Rothe it quickly became clear that this is “wined and dined” with heart, hand & expertise.

The Münster wine dealer Sandfire – australien wines was also represented at this year’s berlin Wine Fair and offered some great Australian wines for tasting – unfortunately no Mollydooker, but you can still get one at Aixvinum in Aachen.

Besides the wines, of course, all kinds of other alcoholic products such as sparkling wines, beers, brandies, vodkas, whiskies and much more were on offer.

In my opinion gin took the biggest place next to the wines. At the moment this spirit is on everyone’s lips worldwide – the varieties shown here not only captivated by their quality and special taste, but also by their great bottle designs.

Champagne was offered by H.Blin with the credo “it’s time to drink champagne and dance on the table”. Many guests took this to heart when drinking champagne – I didn’t notice if the second motto was also implemented.

At some of the stands this year there were also delicious fruit juices to be discovered – I think this is a must to round off a culinary evening. Especially in the vineyards you can find many interesting and often rare kinds of fruit to distinguish them from the others. Of course, there are not large quantities, but maybe this makes for more exclusive products.

I also liked the offensive of Novino – a start-up which produces a new, non-alcoholic fermented beverage from pure Riesling and Cabernet grapes, which do not contain more alcohol than conventional fruit juices.

Novino rightly asks the question “…and what do you offer to your guests who don’t drink wine“, because on every occasion there should be special drinks for those guests who want to celebrate alcohol-free.

Further back in the halls there was again something for the “physical well-being”.

In addition to “Flammkuchen” in a wide variety of variations – with bacon, onions, leaf spinach or even salmon, Serrano ham and Parmesan cheese – there was above all an excellent food truck with the Pasta Pirates (unfortunately no longer exists). The highlight of the Pasta Pirates this time was the truffle parmesan pasta, whose tempting aroma could be heard as soon as you entered the hall.

If you wanted to indulge in something sweet in between, the Crêperie was the right place to go – here you could get hold of all the classics from nature to Nutella, banana, cheese & ham.

For all tense visitors and exhibitors Fix Back Massage offered a fair-massage – basically a fine thing, but not only I would have liked it better if the massages had taken place in an area similar to a stand and not so close to the hustle and bustle.

A very personal highlight for me was the “Trüffel Manufaktur Göschle” from Schwaben. Not only that I liked the “presenter” with his “Berliner Schnauze” and his friendly and direct manner – no, also the products had done it to me.

All of them carefully designed and presented in a chic way, but most of all many innovative truffle products. I have to admit that truffles have done it to me in general – this has nothing to do with price and decadence, I just love the aroma of good truffles.

Freshly cooked pasta, a dash of good extra virgin olive oil, a little salt and freshly ground pepper and then a little fresh truffle shelves over it – not many ingredients, but a culinary delight!

In the future I will certainly write a contribution on the subject of truffles – we’ll see when I’ll be able to do so during the visits to all those fairs…

So far regarding this year’s WEINmesse berlin. Many thanks to the exhibitors, who were kind enough to present their products to me, and to Messe Berlin GmbH for the invitation to the WEINmesse berlin and for providing a photo (Mr. Rothe) for my article.

In 2021 it will once again be called “the WEINmesse berlin opens its doors” – be there, take a look at the fair, it’s worth it.