Badischer Winzerkeller
Germany
The Baden wine region, the southernmost and third largest in Germany, is primarily a long, slim strip of vineyards nestled between the hills of the Black Forest and the Rhine River, extending some 400 km from north to south.
The wines along the Baden Wine Route are correspondingly varied. Wine connoisseurs have long agreed that they are “blessed by the sun”. Therefore Baden is the only German wine-growing region to be assigned to the EU wine-growing zone B, which means that the wines must have higher Oechsle degrees (more ripeness and natural sugars at harvest) than anywhere else. Plenty of sunshine hours and Germany’s warmest places on the Kaiserstuhl, ensure that this is the case.
Most growers are members of the ca. 100 cooperatives that produce and market about 85% of the region’s wine. The cellar of the region’s central cooperative, Badischer Winzerkeller in Breisach, is the largest in Europe and the fourth-largest in the world. It is with Badischer Winzerkeller (BaWi) that Eberhard cut his first teeth in the world of wine. His father was the first agent representing the Baden wines in Germany and then successfully introducing them to Western Canada upon the family’s move to Canada in 1976. Eberhard interned at BaWi in 1976 and worked as their Export Director from 1992 to 1995. Many friendships were formed in these days that still last today. Together with his friends and former colleagues Erika and Richard, Eberhard selected wines from the winery’s gastronomic range Graf von Kageneck, all elevated in the special small barrel cellar, to complement Enotri’s Baden portfolio.
