Nelly Fischer was not one of those children who grew up with a fixed career aspiration. Something about the film, perhaps, because there was no place where young Nelly could get lost like in a good film, and she imagined life on the set to be exciting. Finally, a film gave her other ideas: “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe. She was 15 years old there. The sunny vineyard in Provence, the good life in nature and a good pinch of love kitsch. It looked dreamy. “Growing up in the country, I always wanted to do something nature-related.”
Now she’s sitting in her bar in the middle of the Glockenbachviertel, her legs relaxedly crossed. Rather little nature, the sky as gray as the road, but a glass of wine in front of you. Just for a photo, it’s only afternoon after all. The photographer tries to lure her out of her reserve. Not that easy. The 32-year-old has a cheerful non-commitment about her, which also rolls off the gray weather and the problems she talks about. She simply laughs away the less pleasant experiences.
The atmosphere around the wine is always relaxed
She wanted to get a taste of the world of wine after graduating from high school, so she left her home in Celle near Hanover and went to a winery in Würzburg. And because she liked it there, she trained as a winemaker there. She learned what happens in the vineyard and then in the wine cellar, and how to market the finished bottle later. “I noticed that just standing in the vineyard isn’t my thing. That’s tough,” says the 32-year-old. “But wine has finally become my passion there. A super exciting product, very dependent on nature – and the atmosphere around it is always relaxed, the customers happy.”
She went to Geisenheim and studied international wine business there, including a semester abroad in Argentina, where she, Erasmus, celebrated a lot and studied something on the side. A small tattoo of the outline of Argentina immortalizes the time on her knuckle, just as the clef under her wrist symbolizes her love of music. And also for the love of family. Grandmother taught her to play the piano.
After university she came across an advertisement from Juliane Eller who was looking for an assistant. Eller is called a “wine rebel”, her podcast is called “You never drink alone”, she has over 49,000 followers on Instagram and released wines with Joko Winterscheidt and Matthias Schweighöfer. “She is a pioneer when it comes to wine marketing and has really shaken up the market,” says Fischer. “Her wine is very much identified with her as a person. I found that super exciting, exactly my vibe.”
“The wine world is still dominated by old white men.”
During the interview, Nelly Fischer wears a pink jacket and white sneakers, she looks younger than 32. The world of wine is still very male-dominated and elitist, women like Juliane Eller are Fischer’s role model. She got the job at Eller and says it was just a perfect fit. She supported Eller in building structure for her business. The two worked at the winery owned by Eller’s parents, who sell classic wine there. Older customers often don’t take Fischer seriously when she’s standing at reception. “People thought they could tell me something about wine – and then they were surprised.” A feeling that she encounters more often, but is relaxed about. “The wine world is still dominated by old white men.”
Nelly Fischer in her wine bar “Dizzy Daisy”.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
Fischer doesn’t let that stop him. At a wine tasting at the winery, she met her current boyfriend, a Munich native. “Have you hired headhunters to bring me to Munich?” she asked him jokingly on the phone one day. She got a call saying there was an idea. If you don’t want to get together. At first she didn’t take the matter particularly seriously, but after further discussion she saw the opportunity. “You don’t get one like that every day,” says Fischer.
“Many people buy from the label in the supermarket.”
The idea: “Wyne”, an online store for wine that is aimed more at women, sees wine as a lifestyle product and focuses on taste instead of locations and grape varieties. Set up with Nelly Fischer, the trained winemaker, as a person of trust who makes the Wyne wines with friendly wineries. The shop is aimed at people who don’t know their way around very well, but would like to drink good wine.
Exactly her thing.
“Many people buy from the label in the supermarket and then drink a wine that isn’t particularly good.” These are the people Nelly Fischer wants to reach. Those who have seen a Jules Mumm ad and then buy the sparkling wine because they want the attitude to life conveyed in the ad. She doesn’t want a benevolent mention in an industry magazine, but wants to establish good wine for the general public.
Self-employment was a dream anyway, now it was presented to her on a silver platter. “I’m curious and often jump straight into the deep end without thinking too much about it,” she says. She pushed aside the first concerns as to whether another online shop for wine was really needed. She wants to realize herself and went to Munich. The start-up world is very different from the outdated world of wine, in which Nelly Fischer has to constantly prove herself as a young woman, and she likes that too. But three days after their move, the lockdown came. Not the best start. Getting to know new people was cancelled, the online shop was created in the home office with video calls.
And while online trading was already going through the roof everywhere, she was still working flat out on “Wyne” – and at least went live in August 2020. Things weren’t going badly when the Corona regulations were relaxed and people flocked outside again, so the Wyne partners looked for a pop-up store. A good time, Fischer was among people again. Gradually, however, it became more difficult economically. It would have needed a new investor, but there was no sign of one. Fischer was invited to many events, the Handelsblatt wrote “Nelly Fischer runs Germany’s first digital winery” and the feedback was good. But the numbers weren’t there anymore.
Maybe too much trial and error
The website should continue to run, the wines can still be bought there, but otherwise no further costs should be produced for the time being, the shareholders finally decided last summer. “I have no regrets. The learning curve is and has been immense.” Fischer laughs when she tells the story, as she often does. “It didn’t really devastate me.” Also because it wasn’t a hard cut, the online shop still exists. “I was more struggling to regain my strength because it was a draining time.” Head full and still don’t know where to start. “Typical start-up.” They should have worked out more about what Wyne stands for, what they do differently than the others, she says today. Due to the pandemic, things suddenly had to be done quickly and funds were limited. “Maybe it was too much trial and error.”
Another opportunity arose for Fischer from the Wyne pop-up store: one of their customers is a restaurateur and had a shop on hand that should be revitalized. Nelly Fischer is now driving the democratization of wines locally in the “Dizzy Daisy” wine bar at Thalkirchner Strasse 10. The concept is hers, the look is hers and of course she chose the wines. She created the “Dizzy Daisy” wines together with the winemaker Jana Hauck. The concept works: a very young, unpretentious audience meets here. One that could just as easily move through the neighboring hip Glockenbach bars. And Fischer likes it, “I’m a hostess through and through, I like creating a good atmosphere and making everyone feel good.” The only thing she doesn’t want to do is work late. “And it would be nice to reach those who don’t live in Munich.” Whether it’s a reactivation of Wyne, a similar concept, or even something like Tupperware parties for wine – she has plenty of ideas. The only thing she can’t really do very well with is the trend towards non-alcoholic wine, at least at the moment. “I’m rather conservative: I’d rather drink wine with a bang.”