00:00Barely three years separate these images.
00:04In mid-July 2021, a hundred-year flood devastated the Ahr Valley in western Germany.
00:10At least 135 people lost their lives here.
00:18How did two winemaking sisters manage not only to survive,
00:22but to once again produce top-quality wines in such a short period?
00:28The fact that we're standing here today is largely owing to sheer luck.
00:32Many people lost their lives in the 2021 flood.
00:35We luckily only lost our winery.
00:38I'm Meike Näcke.
00:39And I'm Dörte.
00:41And today we're going to tell you how we rebuilt our winery.
00:45Dörte and Meike are Wintners, body and soul.
00:48The sisters are now the fifth generation to be running their family business.
00:52The Meike Näcke Winery is renowned in particular for its Pinot Noirs.
00:56They're exported to the world from the small town of Danau in the Ahr Valley.
01:05Their business was even named 2024 Winery of the Year.
01:13The winery itself is located just 60 meters from the Ahr River.
01:18Flashback to 2021.
01:20On the night of July 14th to 15th, with the Ahr's water level rising from continuous rain,
01:26the sisters had no inkling of the consequences the storm would bring.
01:32Almost everyone who lives close to a river knows about flooding
01:36and basically knows what to do.
01:39That's what we did all day.
01:41We piled up sandbags and prepared for the flood.
01:48But we never thought it would reach the scale that it did.
01:54The floodwaters began coming in unpredictable waves,
01:57which soon burst through the winery's walls.
02:00The sisters found themselves in a life-threatening situation.
02:06Luckily, the water was only halfway up the window.
02:09You know, when there's water on both sides of the glass, you can't break it anymore.
02:15We were lucky. It hadn't risen above the pain yet.
02:18So we were able to break through it and swim out of the building.
02:27The sisters managed to escape the raging waters and climb into a tree.
02:31There they hung on for hours until they were rescued by the fire department the following morning.
02:38It was a stroke of luck that we were able to hold on to each other.
02:41It meant we were able to keep each other going.
02:45From the very start, we began discussing the damage,
02:48what's broken, how we could continue, what we were insured for.
02:55We basically started thinking about how we would go on.
03:00Eight hours in a tree is quite a long time.
03:05The day after the flood, the full extent of the disaster became apparent.
03:09The sisters had lost almost everything.
03:12The damage ran into the millions.
03:17Leaving was never an option.
03:19Our vines are here.
03:21As winemakers, we work with nature, in nature.
03:26People's willingness to help also gave us so much encouragement.
03:31Giving up wasn't an option.
03:35There was more hope to come.
03:37Nine of the 380 wine barrels that were swept away or destroyed were returned unscathed,
03:43a special vintage that the sisters called the Lost Barrels.
03:51With the help of family, friends and colleagues, they began with a thorough cleanup.
03:56With rebuilding came a new beginning.
03:58From then on, they would only produce organic wines.
04:02At first, the winery was brought back to life with temporary solutions.
04:06By 2025, the Nagels plan to build a completely new and sustainable winery high up on the vineyard,
04:12protected from flooding, nestled in nature, using lots of wood and natural materials, and with a leafy façade.
04:22It's not that we feel unbeatable or indestructible now, but we've been tested to our absolute limits.
04:30We know what we can achieve when it's necessary, and what's possible when it's called for.
04:38And that's built us up and given us confidence to face the future.
04:43The Aar Valley is still living with its traumatic memories.
04:46Many have had to throw in the towel or move away.
04:49Neither was an option for Dorte and Meike.
04:51For them, swimming against the current has been worth all the effort.
