Dear fellow residents,
Many of you will be wondering when the new parking regulations in the center of Zell will come into effect.
The parking meters have now been delivered and installed. As long as no signs indicating paid parking have been put up, the meters do not need to be used. Of course, the signposted parking areas along the Moselle promenade are exempt from this.
Unfortunately, the production and delivery of the traffic signs and frames, some of which have to be custom-made, is taking longer than expected. The manufacturer and supplier of the traffic signs has announced that it may take until the end of August to complete the delivery.
We are currently checking whether at least the signs for the paid parking spaces can be delivered. The signage for “resident parking” in the “old town” will not be possible before the end of August.
I will continue to keep you informed here.
Slope stabilization
Two slope stabilization measures are currently underway in our town of Zell.
Firstly, now that construction work on the car bridge has been completed, the slope in Brandenburg near the gas station is also being stabilized. The work had to be put out to tender again for the extended area. The results are now available and are currently being reviewed. The contract will then be awarded and work will continue there.
Furthermore, deep boreholes are currently being drilled in the vineyard area below the “Zeller Schwarze Katz” banner. Pipes will be inserted into these boreholes to determine whether and to what extent the slope is moving.
As a result, Jakobstraße and Kapertchenweg will have to be completely closed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to say exactly how long the work will take at this stage. However, the contractor is endeavouring to keep the duration as short as possible. It is currently expected that the work will be completed by the end of calendar week 33 (August 15).
Guest address sought
During my vacation, Mr. David Schmidt sent me a letter dated July 15, in which he commented on various topics. These are very interesting, both in relation to the wine festival he attended here and to the topic of “Zeller Schwarze Katz.” I would like to get in touch with Mr. Schmidt and reply to him. Unfortunately, he did not provide his home address. In his letter, he writes, among other things: “Before I leave Zell and return to the USA, I would like to make a few comments about my vacation in this fundamentally beautiful town of Zell...” He has been living in New York for 30 years, where he sells German wines.
He goes on to write that he stayed in an apartment in downtown Zell for four weeks.
My request to accommodation providers: Did Mr. David Schmidt stay with you and can his contact details be obtained so that he can be replied to?
As accommodation providers are required to register guests, disclosing his home address does not violate data protection laws.
If anyone has any further information about Mr. David Schmidt, please let me know. Tel. 96 96-21 or email: buergermeister@zellmosel.de
Thank you very much!
Why did the Higher Administrative Court reject the town of Zell's application to change the registration of the “Schwarze Katz” vineyard?
Since 1863, our winegrowers in the town of Zell (Mosel) have been selling wines under the name “Zeller Schwarze Katz.”
This designation has had an eventful history. For example, as early as 1929, it was the subject of legal disputes before the district court in Cochem, in 1932 before the Higher Regional Court in Cologne, and in 1940 even before the Reich Court in Berlin, the predecessor of today's Federal Court of Justice.
After 1945, seals and cork branding under the control of the town of Zell guaranteed the quality and originality of the wines. In 1953, the town of Zell had the “Zeller Schwarze Katz” brand, seal, cork branding, and label protected by trademark law at the Patent Office.
The amendment to the Wine Act in 1971 meant that cork branding and seals could no longer be issued. The issuance of seal stamps and the implementation of cork branding were therefore discontinued with the 1970 vintage. The “Zeller Schwarze Katz” trademark was retained and is still protected by trademark law today.
The 1971 Wine Act also had other implications.
Whereas there had previously been around 20,000 vineyard sites in Germany, these were consolidated so that only 2,590 individual sites, 150 large sites, and 32 areas remained in the eleven German wine-growing regions.
At that time, the town of Zell had applied for the entire town area to be entered in the vineyard register as the large vineyard “Zeller Schwarze Katz.” Contrary to the application, the Ministry of Agriculture at the time ultimately only entered the designation “Schwarze Katz” and, in response to the counter-argument put forward by the town of Zell, pointed out that according to the applicable law (1971), the place name Zell could be added in front of it. Since then, the designation “Zeller Schwarze Katz” has been the legal designation for wines from the municipal area.
With the amendment of the wine law at federal level in 2021, a paradigm shift took place in such a way that the origin of the wine was given decisive importance for the quality assessment and no longer the classification according to grown quality and must weight. In future, the distinction should be made according to the Roman principle of origin (the closer the origin, the higher the quality) and no longer according to the Germanic principle: “The quality in the glass is decisive.”
The basis should be “German wine.” Wines with protected geographical indication (PGI) – regional wines – / quality and Prädikat wines with protected designation of origin (PDO) – these in turn are divided into four levels of higher quality requirements: Starting with wines whose grapes can come from the entire growing region (e.g., Mosel), wines from areas or large vineyards (region), e.g., Schwarze Katz, / local wines / single vineyard wines.
The new classification is to be implemented with the 2026 harvest.
Since the large vineyard “Schwarze Katz” is registered in the vineyard register with this designation, it was necessary to change the entry in the vineyard register in order to retain the full designation “Zeller Schwarze Katz.” The town of Zell submitted this application to the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in November 2021 and received a rejection (dismissal) for a change from both the state and in administrative court proceedings before the administrative court and now also before the Higher Administrative Court (OVG).
In its detailed reasoning for the judgment, the OVG states that it sees no need to change the name of the large vineyard. The change in the sales structure is only feared and not proven. Furthermore, the name “Zeller Schwarze Katz” is not eligible for registration as a large vineyard, as this would misleadingly suggest to consumers that it is a single vineyard.
In addition, the town of Zell and its winegrowers could take steps to have “Zeller Schwarze Katz” registered in the EU register as a wine with a “protected designation of origin.”
We have initiated this process of registering the “Zeller Schwarze Katz” trademark together with our winegrowers and are currently preparing the necessary documents for registration with the European Union.
I will keep you informed about the registration as a wine with a “protected designation of origin.”
I wish you all a wonderful weekend and a positive week.
Your mayor
Hans-Peter Döpgen