A Syrian refugee, Student Ninorta Bahno, 26, who has fled the civil war in Syria more than three years ago, has been crowned “queen” of one of Germany’s top wine-making regions, the first asylum seeker to receive such an accolade. The Syrian Christian was crowned as the wine queen in the city of Trier, western Germany, in the Moselle wine region near the border with Luxembourg.
“I want to show that Germany is a welcoming country and that the Germans are very hospitable and work towards integrating refugees quickly and successfully,” said Ms Bahno. “As a refugee, it’s very difficult to integrate into a new place at the beginning.”
Ms Bahno will be spending the next year in representing winemakers from around Trier at the festivals and events. She said that other refugees with whom she had spoken to were “very happy” about her new title. Ms Bahno said that she had taken a crash course on the local wine-making and that her favourite variety is a sweet Riesling.
The tradition of German wine queens were dated back to the 1930s. The wine queens from German’s 13 wine regions compete on every September, for the title of German Wine Queen.
By Premji
