Northwest Germany’s Teutoburg Forest is famous for being the scene of one of the Roman Empire’s greatest military disasters, when three Roman legions were slaughtered by the local tribes.

It’s not so well known for its vineyards, but that could soon be a thing of the past.

Jan Brinkmann grows grapes in Bad Iburg near Osnabrück. “We have the first two authorised steep slopes in the whole of Lower Saxony here,” he says.

The farm has existed under the name Brinkmann for 750 years. However, the winery was only founded in 2018, when Brinkmann switched from pig farming.

This became possible when the European Union changed its laws to permit the planting of new vineyards. Since then, around 300 hectares (74o acres) of new vineyards have been allowed in Germany every year, and commercial viticulture has been permitted in Lower Saxony since 2016.