Sleeper March/April 2010

HOTEL REVIEW
ituated on the edge of Deidesheim, at the heart
S
of the Deutsche Weinstraße in south-western
Germany, Ketschauer Hof is surrounded by
the Riesling-planted vineyard slopes of the
Basserman-Jordan estate that stretch towards the Rhine
Valley. Cellars under the manor house and other estate
buildings hold wines dating back to 1811, Napoleonic
times. Within such an historical context, the surprise at the
Ketschauer Hof is the cosmopolitan feel of the interiors
– an interpretation that maintains a connection to the
locale and mirrors the current renaissance of Riesling
under a new generation of young winemakers.
Estate owner Achim Niederberger, who has signiﬁcant
other business interests including further top estates as
classiﬁed by the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter
– the Association of German Prädikat Wine estates
– recognised that there is a special audience of conservative
but sophisticated people who visit this historic wine-
growing region. Located in the area of Germany with the
highest proportion of millionaires, there is a very high
expectation of culinary and hospitality experiences upon
which the Ketschauer Hof delivers on both counts.
Niederberger knew of Bost Berlin’s other work such
as the Michelin-starred restaurant, Falco that overlooks
Leipzig from the top of the Westin Hotel, the suites at
the Westin Grand Hotel Berlin, and the BASF Business
Hotel René Bohn in Ludwigshafen. He was looking for
“a modern experience that ﬁtted the region” and this
attracted Tassilo Bost, who says he took the job “because
Niederberger did not want a conservative solution.”
Potentially unsure of the reaction to something new,
Niederberger ﬁrst asked Bost to develop two restaurant
concepts.
All the estate’s buildings are heavily architecturally
protected by the ‘Denkmal Amt’ German heritage
authorities. Even the former barn buildings that have
been transformed into Freundstück, the hotel’s gourmet
restaurant, and the adjacent Bassermännchen bistro,
required considerable structural compromise. “There
was a ‘no’ at every turn,” laments Bost of the battle of
attrition with the authorities. The surface mounted
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