Peter and Amba: Unfortunately, the dream of wine from the coal dump seems to be over for the first time.
About the history: Wine was grown on the Millicher Halde from 1982 to the 1990s. The result: a wine - named "Millicher Fuchs" - which, however, tasted less tasty "vinegar-like". The vineyard fell into oblivion until 2011. The Batalia couple decided to reactivate this vineyard. He knew about this Weinfeld from his apprenticeship at Sophia Jacoba as an IT expert. She runs a wine shop just behind the entrance to Millich (Batalia - wine, vinegar, oil & more). They received advice and professional support from an experienced winemaker from Rheinhessen. Sufficient solar energy and the almost black soil from a depth of 600-800m due to coal, slate and rock components heats up very well during the day and releases the heat only slowly at night. . . An agreement was quickly reached with the town of Hückelhoven. The landscape authority initially wanted to stop the project because they feared that it would affect the local occurrence of the "Russian bear" - a species of butterfly. Finally, this authority also agreed, subject to the conditions of ecologically compatible cultivation. Then the healthy vines were cut free, new ones planted and wires stretched. A total of 240 vines on 800m² on a southern slope -50% Riesling and 50% Müller Thurgau. 1st tasting April 2013. The wine was on sale by 2015 at the latest - on the current website of the Batalia wine shop there is at least a photo of a bottle of BATALIA - Riesling "Glück Auf" 2015. So far so good . As it seems: a success story.
3 days after my current heap tour, I drove to the Batalia wine shop to find out about the purchase of some bottles - intended as gifts. There I found out that they were forbidden from further operations because there was no concession for growing wine in North Rhine-Westphalia. Outside of 13 specially designated German wine-growing regions in Germany, the granting of concessions for commercial production and commercial marketing are strictly limited and are subject to strict requirements under European and German wine law. Thus the Weinfeld is currently fallow and will not be worked on any further.