Never let it be said that German’s don’t know how to throw a party!

Today, local restaurateur Chris Schöne will break the seal on the world’s oldest and largest wine barrel, and serve red wine to a huge gathering, including the Danish ambassador and a descendant of Lord Ludwig von Spiegel, who saved the cask from decay in the 18th century.
The barrel was recently filled with 4,000 liters of Dornfelder (a fairly obscure German red grape) from the Rhineland.

The oak barrel in the town of Halberstadt (Germany) measures five meters in diameter, and can potentially hold up to 144,000 liters of wine. Even when empty, it still weighs about 63 tons.