Add this to your list of career aspirations: German towns are looking for “wine queens,” and at least one city has been feeling a shortage.
NBC News reported on Saturday that the town of Kesten, Germany — home to 350 people and 25 separate wineries — couldn’t find any women willing to represent the town’s wine as its “wine queen.” Traditionally, the title is bestowed upon a local woman who acts as an ambassador for the town’s wine industry (and hopefully, taste-tester). But this year, no women stepped up.
Instead, the title was given to 24-year-old law student Sven Finke, who offered to step up as a joke. “After the present Wine Queen already added a third year to her duties, because they could not find a successor, I jokingly said that I would take the Wine Queen job," Finke told NBC News. The town took him seriously, and Finke now sports a laurel wreath and toga as a change from the traditional dirndl and crown. The wine, however, remains the same.
Now, we’re all about non-traditional gender roles and the expansion of an industry that has traditionally been male-dominated, but we have to say that we’re a little shocked at this story. You're telling us an entire town passed on an opportunity to be Wine Queen?
For those of us with an appreciation for the more fermented things in life, there’s precedent for including newcomers in the century-old practice. Trier, a town in in the country’s Mosel region, recently crowned a Syrian refugee as its Wine Queen after giving her a crash-course in winemaking.
Of course, there are always those who say change begins at home. America is a melting pot and there’s always space for a new tradition. Considering wine is produced in all 50 states, maybe it’s time for American states to crown their own Wine Queens (or Kings). We call dibs on New York!