(DW) - Ninorta Bahno, 26, is an Aramaic Christian from Syria. She fled the civil war three-and-a-half years ago, arriving in the idyllic German town of Trier on the Moselle River. Bahno is the first asylum-seeker to be named wine queen in Germany. Each year, local, regional and national wine queens are tasked with representing the drink. DW looks back on a tradition that has evolved over the decades. 

The wine queen tradition originated in 1931 in the Palatinate, when publisher and wine PR guru Daniel Meininger suggested crowning a local beauty at the annual wine festival. Ruth Bachrodt became the first German Wine Queen. It wasn't until 1950 that regions outside the Palatinate joined in, with 13 regional queens competing for the German title, and juries were introduced to make the selection.