Porsche Travel Experience Rheinhessen: a rooftop adventure
A Porsche road trip, with added roof tent, through Germany’s largest wine region
With its deep valleys, steep slopes and village vineyards, the wide panoramas of Rheinhessen have all the ingredients for a classic road trip. Just add a Porsche, a roof tent and a desire to leave your comfort zone
Dreaming up new adventures is something that many Porsche road trip fans are familiar with. The opportunity to seek out new perspectives. The Porsche Roof Tent Experience certainly does that. It’s a chance to get closer to nature by roaming the world with a rooftop vista come bedtime. We follow one participant’s journey through Germany’s lush western wine region as they discover a brand new kind of room with a view.An elevating Porsche experience that reaches new heightsFor a brief moment, what I see before me takes my breath away. The wonder of a glorious sunrise shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, but perhaps its sheer scale and the unique setting from which we were viewing it made all the difference. For a moment, my travel companions and I forget about the coffee mugs in our hands, and even the fact that we’d just spent the night in roof tents in the wide-open outdoors. Our Porsche cars soak up the sunlight and mirror a thousand reflections of the surrounding vineyards. My Porsche Roof Tent Experience truly could not have gotten off to a better start.It’s time to get rolling. I climb into the Porsche, sink into the driver’s seat, and start the engine. As I begin driving, I feel an immediate connection with the road. As the vines of the Palatinate region rush by, my head is finally free again. For me, fresh ideas and perspectives can only emerge on new paths. Every adventure begins with a first step – no matter how small – as long as it’s a step out of your comfort zone.As free as the road: the Porsche Roof Tent Experience opens up new perspectivesWe are on a Porsche road trip through an ancient cultural wine region. Somehow driving here almost feels like sailing amid a vast ocean of vines. That’s how it is in Rheinhessen – the beating heart of German wine culture. Connoisseurs know that this is the place to be.A glass half-full outlookThere are a number of special people are working to bring this wondrous place to a new level of splendour. Like sparkling wine producer, Sekthaus Raumland, who have been the catalyst for the new sparkling wine movement in Germany. Managed by sisters Marie-Luise and Katharina Raumland, they’re combining classical flair with a future-forward drive to produce world-class sparkling wines. This courageous vision caused a sensation around the world, and she and her sister continue to work on big plans to develop the sparkling wine business further, working just as diligently as their parents did before them. “It’s tingling in our blood,” says Marie-Luise with a smile. Here, a new path is being paved where none had been before.The grape escape: Marie-Luise Raumland and her sister Katharina are helping reinvent Germany’s sparkling wine industryWhere the past and the present embraceWe are no longer just drivers here. We have become explorers, driven by nothing but the pure desire for discovery as we cover more and more of the region where the vines grow down to the road and the slopes plunge. As silent witnesses of a bygone time, the Trulli watch over the Rhine-Hessian landscape. First built in this region centuries ago by Italian seasonal workers, a trullo is a stone vineyard cottage that offers protection from wind and rain. They fit snugly into this corner of the world – the past and the present complementing each other harmoniously. You really get a sense of this mutual enhancement during a wine tasting, or on a hike with a picnic in the middle of nature. An exciting day in Rebenmeer comes to a delicious end out on the terrace under evening skiesOn slopes less-travelledWanderlust, driving pleasure, relishing the freedom. These are the overwhelming emotions that come to us as we drive over loess and shell limestone – the best terroir for grapevines. Since embarking on our Porsche Roof Tent Experience, the participants have become fast friends, coming together to create shared moments. This is no conventional drive from one hotel to the next, but instead is an outlet for building new perspectives. The traditional road may be the easier option, but the slopes less-travelled always have more to offer. In the evening, a dinner in the villa of the Sekthaus with Marie-Luise and star chef Philipp Stein awaits. From the terrace, we’re further treated to a priceless view of the vineyards in the light of the setting sun – a fig tree, rosemary bushes and walnut trees look back at us from the garden. It’s like discovering a piece of Tuscany in the middle of Germany. After dinner, our roof tents are set up in just a few simple steps, right in the centre of the vineyards, as we enjoy one last drink with friends before turning in.The winding, panoramic roads of the Rheinhessen region are a haven for committed driversNot long afterwards, I’m unfolding a ladder and climbing into the tent on the roof of the Porsche car, the starry night spread out above me. It’s just me, myself and nature – although in my head I’m still behind the wheel, full of memories of this picture-perfect Porsche road trip. Whatever tomorrow brings, I’m ready for it. As I’ve quickly come to realise, the next adventure is just around the next bend.
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