In the organizer's words:

tja wine bistro

tja, North German serenity, standing above the problems and difficulties of life and pouring yourself and your friends a glass or two of good wine with exactly the same serenity. That is tja.

We have the chance to present Andi Zuehlke's brilliant cuisine and the now perfectly matured natural wines from our warehouse to you every Friday and Saturday from 28.11. up to and including 20.12. from 6pm to 10pm. We have the location of the AENDRÈ Deli at Lehmweg 31 a at our disposal, for which Andi is currently conjuring up plant-based breakfast creations as head chef without the use of industrial sugar.

We offer a variety of Andi's wines (including his own) from the South of France, Alsace and the Loire region to Rheinhessen, Baden and Hamburg. Andi himself cooks vegetarian delicacies and I, Tjark, take care of the wine advice and service. French wine bistro meets North German regional cuisine. We are therefore aimed at all curious people interested in wine who want to get closer to the subject of natural wine or who already know it well and want to celebrate our incredibly diverse and rare wine selection (some of the winegrowers we have in our range no longer make any wines at all) and also appreciate Andi's fine cuisine. The name of our bistro tja (tjark + andi) just came to us at some point.

Background

My colleague's name is Andi Zuehlke and he has been working in the Hamburg restaurant trade for almost 30 years now. Back then, he was the first restaurateur to bring natural wines, i.e. unfiltered and untreated wines free from any chemicals or other nonsense, to Hamburg. In 2020, he produced his first own wines in cooperation with Matthias Kowalczyk from Alsheim. This passion for wine, viticulture and everything you can know about it led me to decide to work for Andi in the natural wine store in 2022. In the same year, Andi created a vineyard of about 1 hectare in the old country at the Kotulla fruit farm, which was to lay the foundation for Hamburg's first natural wine. In 2022, he applied to the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food to become the first officially registered winegrower in the federal state of Hamburg (the office couldn't believe their eyes either). In 2024, after submitting endless documents, he became the first Hamburg winegrower ever.

In the same year, 2024, we harvested the first fruit, a whole 3.5 kilograms... This year, from September 26-27, came the first big surprise: our harvest yielded 600 kilograms, which we processed and bottled in around 400 bottles. They are now being stored in the old country and will continue to mature until they are perfect.