And she has spoken of her delight at the award, and hopes that it can be used to promote integration in the country as well as shedding a positive light on Syrian wine.
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Winemakers in the Mosel region selected the 26-year-old Ninorta Bahno to counter growing resentment in Germany against refugees after some 1 million arrived last year.
A Syrian student has become the first refugee to be crowned queen of one of Germany’s wine-making regions.
Ninorta Banho was made an ambassador for four wineries on the Moselle river in front of hundreds of people who had gathered in Trier, an ancient town near the country’s western border with Luxembourg, to sample wines from the Olewig valley.
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The tradition of German wine queens dates back to the 1930s.
The 26-year-old is an Aramaic Christian from the Syrian city of Al-Qamishli, and she escaped the Syrian civil war with her sister at the end of 2012, ultimately ending up in Trier. “As a refugee, it’s very hard to integrate into a new place at the beginning”.
Every September, the wine queens from German’s 13 wine regions compete for the title of German Wine Queen.
“Lots of people say “we can not manage it”.
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“After the first conversation it was clear that she loved wine from Trier”, he explained.
