WIESBADEN, Germany — Americans familiar with wines produced in the Rheingau region may not realize that half of all the wine produced in the area disappears into the barrels, vats and silos of Wiesbaden’s Henkell Sparkling Wine Company.
“There are 55 kilometers of pipelines carrying wine and one million liters of wine in this cellar,” says tour guide Elfi Dale as she leads visitors through the Sektkellerei Henkell, a palatial company headquarters that serves as the entrance to the sparkling wine complex and cellars in the Biebrich district of Wiesbaden. “About 75 million liters — half of all the wine produced in the Rheingau — is supplied to Henkell which sells about 20 million bottles a year worldwide.”
Located just off of Autobahn 66 and not far from downtown Wiesbaden, Henkell offers an easy destination for visitors interested in learning more about the history and cultivation of sparkling wine. The Sektkellerei Henkell and Co. offers tours to groups of five to 45 people lasting about one-and-a-half hours and costing €7 a person.
During the tour, visitors are invited down into the wine cellars, given a look at the history of the industry, shown the bottling plant and offered a sample of the company’s product.
Portraits high over the ornate staircase in the entrance hall depict the company’s namesakes — Adam Henkell, a Mainz wine merchant and one of the first people in Germany to master the art of making sparkling wine, Henkell’s son Otto who founded the Henkell Trocken brand and moved the company to Wiesbaden, and grandson Otto II who expanded the family business into a worldwide concern.
Tourgoers are told how German composer Richard Wagner first sought to build a massive festival hall for his operas on the current site of the company headquarters but was not given permission by the property owners so instead turned to Bayreuth in northern Bavaria with his construction plans paving the way for Henkell to set up shop in Wiesbaden.
During the tour visitors learn that the Henkell company also produces several other well-known sparkling wines — although the Henkell brand is Germany’s most popular sparkling wine export.
To arrange for tours call civ (0611) 63209 or email vera.fray@hs-kg.de. Sektkellerei Henkell is located at Biebricher Allee 142, 65187 Wiesbaden.