The 2020 Schillerwein from the Hummel winery can continue to be sold, despite an order from the Pankow District Office in Berlin to withdraw the wine from the market. This decision, however, was ruled unlawful by the Berlin Administrative Court. Although Horst Hummel’s winery is located in Hungary, his storage facilities and company headquarters are based in the German capital of Berlin.
Laboratory tests
The March 2024 ruling was the result of a series of events. Initially, a wine inspection at a shop in Dresden raised concerns about the Schillerwein. The volatile acidity measured exceeded the legal limit of 1.2 g/l, and the expert panel described the wine as: "harsh, lingering, vinegar-like, unbalanced, sour, mousy, biologically altered in a negative way."
A second sample, taken in Berlin, showed an acidity level just below the limit but led to a similarly harsh tasting evaluation: "dry; not clean, unpleasantly prickling and coating the palate from the start, harsh, unbalanced sourness, lingering and abrasive in the aftertaste." As a result, the Pankow District Office ordered the wine to be discarded, deeming it spoiled.
Hummel filed a lawsuit in response, particularly because an independent expert report he commissioned had found a significantly lower level of volatile acidity.
Hummel explained that his wines are known as natural wines and appeal to a clientele that appreciates higher levels of volatile acidity.
Hummel explained to the German trade magazine Weinwirtschaft that this was not the first time his wines had been subject to random sampling, but until now, there had never been any issues, as all legal limits were previously adhered to. He explained that his wines are known as natural wines and appeal to a clientele that appreciates higher levels of volatile acidity. He suggested that the sample from Dresden may have developed excessive volatile acidity due to improper storage conditions.
Unsuitable for consumption?
In the end, the court focused solely on the facts. Since only the first sample failed to meet the objective criteria, the order to dispose of the wine was deemed unlawful, according to the judge’s reasoning. The district office had based its decision on the descriptions provided by the laboratory tasters, who concluded that the wine was not suitable for consumption.
However, this did not hold up in court. The judgment stated that while the findings might indicate qualitative defects in the product, they did not render the wine unsuitable for consumption. The ruling even acknowledged that "natural wines have a broad range of flavors," which does not legally constitute spoilage. The court referred to examples from other rulings, such as spoiled meat or fingernails in meat products, for comparison.
For Horst Hummel, who represented himself as a lawyer, the ruling is a victory. The wine remains in his inventory and will be put back on the market after further aging. He questions hypothetically whether a volatile acidity level exceeding 1.2 g/l would legally render a wine spoiled. After all, this level does not necessarily make the wine unsuitable for human consumption.
“There are no precedent cases in Germany concerning wine,” he notes. Hummel adds that he would have pursued the case through the appellate courts if the ruling had gone against him. MS
