I mentioned in an earlier article about Bremen<\/a> that a highlight of Bremen\u2019s old city (Altstadt) is the Rathaus, the old town hall. Built in the 15th century and renovated in the 17th century to give it a Renaissance-style fa\u00e7ade, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site<\/a>, in combination with the Roland statue in front of it.<\/p>\n The Rathaus was built at a time when Bremen was an independent city within the Holy Roman Empire, with a powerful merchant class. Its merchants\u2019 guild was also a member of the international free trade association called the Hanseatic League which, at its height in the 14th and 15th centuries, dominated maritime trade in the Baltic and North Sea.<\/p>\n The Rathaus, then, was an expression of that importance. At the same time, with the city\u2019s emphasis on trade, it\u2019s not surprising that the cellar underneath the Rathaus was used for trade. Its cool, damp and dark atmosphere makes it a perfect place to store, bottle and sell wine.<\/p>\n\n Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. Making a purchase through an affiliate link will mean a small commission for this website. This will not affect your price.<\/em> Privacy policy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n And another disclosure: I took this tour of the Ratskeller as part of a press trip sponsored by Bremen Tourismus<\/a>, the Bremen Tourism Board. All opinions are my own and the sponsors have no influence over what I choose to write.<\/em><\/p>\n Book your accommodations in Bremen.<\/a>\u00a0I stayed at the\u00a0Radisson Blu<\/a> on this visit, just around the corner from the Rathaus and many other Altstadt sights. The room was comfortable and quiet because the window faced the hotel\u2019s atrium rather than the street.<\/p>\n The Ratskeller serves the same purpose today, making it possibly the oldest wine cellar in Germany. It\u2019s now home to two businesses: a restaurant and a wine merchant.<\/p>\n You might think it\u2019s odd, if you know where Bremen is in Germany, that there was such an important wine cellar in a region with no vineyards or wineries. It has to do with Bremen\u2019s status as a Hanseatic city and the profitable wine trade that passed through its bustling port.<\/p>\n Every year the Ratskellermeister (Ratskeller master) tastes thousands of wines and chooses a limited number to store and sell in the cellars. These are bottled here with Ratskeller labels. Some are stored to age further, while others are for sale.<\/p>\n I was curious to take the Ratskeller wine cellar tour because of how beautiful the building is more than because I have any particular interest in wine. The tourism board arranged a modified tour for me, along with a group of tour operators. It had elements from several of the tours the Ratskeller offers to the public.<\/p>\n As it turned out, the tour was well-presented and took us through the history of the wine cellar as well as explaining the process that goes into choosing, storing and selling the wines.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the spaces we walked through were in general not as interesting as I had hoped. The first one we entered is the office, where wine bottles used to get labeled and sold. It\u2019s still a sales space today. After that, it was mostly just storage spaces filled with either wine barrels or cardboard boxes holding bottles of wine.<\/p>\n One of the rooms is filled with big wooden wine barrels in long rows, but these barrels are just for show. Since the cellars are part of the UNESCO site, the Ratskeller isn\u2019t allowed to throw these old barrels away.<\/p>\n While most of the rooms we walked through had either bare brick walls or plaster, there was one surprisingly decorative old door and a few other ancient sculptures.<\/p>\n At one end of the cellars is a fenced-off area called the Treasury, with a decorative doorway. It holds a large collection of sweet German wines dating back as far as the 1700s, the oldest a 1727 \u201cR\u00fcdesheimer Apostle Wine.\u201d They\u2019re all in bottles, sorted by year, and each bottle is wrapped in plastic to protect the paper label. Some of them sell for prices in the hundreds or thousands, depending on that particular year\u2019s rarity, quality and age.<\/p>\n The last stop on the tour is a separate small room, lit for the tour only by candlelight. The smell of this room is powerful: a sweet, rich wine scent. That\u2019s because it holds a wine cask still full of Rosekeller R\u00fcdesheim wine from 1653. No one except the Ratskellermeister is allowed to sample the wine from this cask. The current one, in the job since 2023, hasn\u2019t done so yet.<\/p>\n On our special tour, we tasted three different wines, and each was paired with chocolate. The first was at the start of the tour. The second came after viewing some of the cellars, and the last came between seeing the Treasury and entering the room with the strong wine smell.<\/p>\n For each wine that we tried, the guide explained what wine it was and what distinguishes it from others. It was interesting to first taste the wine \u2013 I enjoyed them all, but I\u2019m not at all a wine connoisseur \u2013 then taste the chocolate and then the wine again. The chocolates were well paired. They seemed not just to change the flavor of the wine but enhance it. (Of course, this may just have been because I love chocolate more than wine!)<\/p>\n By the way, the \u201ctastes\u201d aren\u2019t what you normally get on a wine-tasting tour. We had generous portions; the wine glasses were filled about to the halfway point. I don\u2019t drink much or often and had to ask for a container to pour out the wine I didn\u2019t drink. I knew that if I drank all three glasses within the two hours of the tour, I\u2019d be stumbling and slurring my words. But the fact that I had to ask implies that usually people drink all of it.<\/p>\n A variety of standard tours are available:<\/p>\n Or you could take a themed tour:<\/p>\n We took more or less the standard two-hour tour, except that for our group the paired chocolates were added.<\/p>\n That depends. If you\u2019re only interested in the history of the building, you might be better off taking a tour of the Rathaus upstairs. Tours in English happen daily at noon, or you can arrange a tour through Bremen Tourismus<\/a> for a group. Book an English tour here.<\/a><\/p>\n If wines interest you, it\u2019s definitely worth it. The history of this wine cellar is unusual and long, and I enjoyed hearing about the traditions and how they\u2019ve changed over time. There are a few interesting details to see as well, like the one door with decorative carvings around it.<\/p>\n If you do take a Ratskeller wine cellar tour, I\u2019d suggest you take one of the ones that includes wine. The advantage of a wine tasting here is that the quality wines have already been chosen for you: just the ones the Ratskellermeister has deemed good enough to put the Ratskeller label on.<\/p>\n While you\u2019re in Bremen, get the historical background by booking a walking tour<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n A section of the cellar is a restaurant today, also called the Ratskeller. In itself it has some interesting wine-related elements. In particular, tucked under some of the arches that support the old town hall above are some absolutely huge wine barrels dating to the 18th century. Called the monkey barrel, the dolphin barrel, the lion barrel and the dragon barrel, their names refer to the ornate carvings on their flat ends. They\u2019re empty today, but according to the restaurant\u2019s website<\/a>, the largest of them could hold 37,000 bottles of wine.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t eaten there, so I can\u2019t tell you if it\u2019s good or not. I peeked in, though, and the atmosphere, with its arched ceiling and heavy oak furniture, made it look like a pleasant place to enjoy a hearty meal with family or friends. The restaurant is open daily from 12:00-23:00 offering a menu of local specialties heavy on the meat and potatoes, but also some vegetarian and fish options that sound good.<\/p>\n Rachel Heller<\/span><\/p>\n Rachel Heller is a writer living in Groningen, the Netherlands. She is the owner and primary author of this website, Rachel\u2019s Ruminations, a travel blog focused on independent travel with an emphasis on cultural and historical sites\/sights. Read more here<\/a> about her and about this website. All photos in her articles are her own, unless otherwise specified. Rachel also owns and operates a website about World Heritage travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I mentioned in an earlier article about Bremen that a highlight of Bremen\u2019s old city (Altstadt) is the Rathaus, the old town hall. Built in the 15th century and renovated in the 17th century to give it a Renaissance-style fa\u00e7ade, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, in combination with the Roland statue in front […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143058,11834,99858,201,132230,98761,180],"tags":[111813,15268,9891,143059,1935,19286,9182],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-313238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bremen","category-europe-travel","category-germany","category-travel","category-unesco","category-western-europe","category-wine","tag-bremen","tag-cellar","tag-germany","tag-ratskeller","tag-tour","tag-unesco","tag-wine"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ratshaus-w-tram.jpg\")
The Ratskeller today<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ratskeller-entrance.jpg\")
Ratskeller wines<\/h2>\n
Touring the Ratskeller<\/h2>\n
![\"Rows](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ratskeller-barrels.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ratskeller-Dionysus.jpg\")
The Treasury<\/h3>\n
![\"Shelves](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ratskeller-treasury-view.jpg\")
The Rosekeller barrel<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ratskeller-oldest-wine.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nWine tastings<\/h2>\n
Ratskeller tour options<\/h2>\n
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![\"A](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/wine-and-chocolate-horizontal.jpg\")
Should you sign up for a Ratskeller wine cellar tour in Bremen?<\/h2>\n
The Ratskeller restaurant<\/h2>\n
My travel recommendations<\/h2>\n
Planning travel<\/h3>\n
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Other travel-related items<\/h3>\n
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