It's only a few minutes past eleven, but glasses are already clinking at the Frankfurt Mainfest. Lena Roie stands in her mobile wine bar and says: "Loud by tradition. Clear for wine. Courageous for the middle class." This is the motto with which the 31-year-old – Frankfurt's reigning wine queen since 2022 – is now applying for the much older, prestigious crown of Rheingau wine queen for the 2025/26 term of office.
From the fairground wagon to the sensory laboratory
Roie's path began in anything but a traditional way. Growing up in a family of fairground operators in the Rhine-Main area, surrounded by lights and candyfloss, she learned early on that culture and commerce do not have to be mutually exclusive. This was followed by hotel management training, positions in international event and hotel management, and the step into self-employment: Roie's company, founded in 2019, is called "Wine in the City FFM". Mobile wine bars and urban festivals that turn Rheingau grape varieties into pop-up stages in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden or Mainz – staged in a modern way.
Expertise as an attitude
Roie demonstrates that there is talent behind the marketing through quiet, well-calculated work: WSET Level 1 certification is in the bag, Level 2 followed in June 2025; and she is also intensively preparing for her wine and gourmet expert exam. Instead of simply labelling tradition as "new", Roie wants to change the narrative. "Wine is encounter, culture, emotion," she says, "and emotion needs substance."
A candidacy with a political touch
The young entrepreneur also shows substance in her agenda. No wine queen has ever placed the term "middle class" so squarely at the centre of a candidacy. For Roie, this is not a risk, but a return to her roots: "Whether in the vineyard or at the folk festival, the structural challenges are the same: rising costs, shortage of skilled workers, regulations." Roie talks about "building bridges": city and countryside, tradition and modernity, culture and economy should no longer be played off against each other. The word "responsibility" comes up frequently in conversation – an echo of her childhood as a showgirl, where failure was not taboo but part of everyday life. "I come from a world where you get things done instead of talking," she says, and you believe her immediately.
The crown as a compass, not as a crowning glory
But what is the appeal of moving from the urban stage of Frankfurt to the historically rooted office of Rheingau Wine Queen? "The Frankfurt crown has given me visibility," Roie admits. "But the Rheingau crown gives weight to the message and would be a compass for me for the next chapter." Historically, the Rheingau Wine Queen acts as a cultural link between winegrowers, politicians and the public. Those who succeed in this triad can even advance to become German Wine Queen, as Katharina Staab and Eva Lanzerath did recently.
Between Riesling and realism
In times when wine culture is increasingly subordinated to event formats and algorithms, Roie's approach seems unusually grounded. Perhaps because she knows that Riesling can be uncorked, but not reinvented. Perhaps also because she knows the limelight and yet has understood that every stage is only as strong as the foundation on which it stands.
The decision on the Rheingau wine crown will be made at the festive election gala "Rheingau Royal" on 13 September 2025 in the Laiendormitorium of Eberbach Abbey. Until then, Lena Roie will travel across the region tasting wines. She remains, as she says, "loud by tradition," but she remains loud for one thing: wine. And for all those who make it possible day after day.
