INTRO

Whenever we visit my brother and his wife, who live in Basel, Switzerland, and work as a sommelier and chef, we have the great privilege of immediately becoming part of their beautiful community. This community consists of many very good people, all involved in various creative projects ranging from gastronomy, winemaking, urban development, events, and, in the broadest sense, community-building – everyone is connected, working on joint projects or has collaborated at some point.

In 2023 during a dinner at Café Gupi, I had the pleasure of meeting lovely Kat Fischer – co-founder of S.P.A. wines. In Germany, the wine is only available in my shop, I personally imported the allowed quantity in my car after our visit this summer.
I am very grateful that Kat took the time to chat with me about life, becoming and doing.

All images by S.P.A. / Flavio Karrer

My takeaways from Kat shaping Basels culinary creative landscape.

be curios and keep doing new things, always

Kat has already done so many things in her life: she has been a trained seamstress, fashion designer, sucessfull DJane, music editor and she even studied therapeutic kinesiology...  njoying food and wine has always been an important part of her life. She eventually found her professional path in wine after starting to work at a wine shop, where she began to immerse herself in that world.

Over 10 years ago, she founded the „Schweizer Weintage“ (Swiss Wine Days), Basel's fine fair for Swiss winemakers, held annually at the Markthalle Basel. It was in this very Markthalle where the roots of one of her current projects began: S.P.A. Wine. Kat is part of a six-person team that founded the Urban Winery in 2022, located in a cellar with ideal conditions right on the banks of the Rhine.

just push open new doors

More than 10 years ago, a project group from Kat's community set out to revive Basel's historic market hall as a true marketplace once again. There was a lot of open space to play with. While sitting on a rock by the sea during her holiday, it came into her mind that she could organise a fine fair for swiss wine makers. Kat told me: "I always think: I can do this." On a whim, she pitched the idea. A few weeks later, the response from the Markthalle Basel team came: "Alright, then do it!" Kat gathered a team of media professionals and wine enthusiasts, and ever since, she has been organizing Swiss Wine Days every year—a small but refined wine salon that serves as an approachable and unique platform for Swiss winemakers.

create space to assemble good people

The cornerstone for S.P.A. Wine was later laid in the Basel market hall: during the pandemic, there was an empty space in the hall, and there were grapes. So, the first half of what would eventually become the S.P.A. team—Christoph (co-leader of the market hall), Lukas (oenologist), Joel Gernet (Co-editor of the Schweizer Weintage) and Kat—simply placed the fermenting grapes in the empty space and continuously monitored them. This evolved into a live winemaking performance. Passersby could watch, taste, and gradually, more people joined the project. Bottles were designed, and in the end, the team was able to bottle 230 of 1 litre orange wines from this experiment.

power of collaboration

After this initial foray into winemaking in a public urban space, the second half of S.P.A. joined the team: Valentin, Seraina and Elias, friends from the widely interwoven Basel network, with expertise in urban space and interim use of space, social media and hospitality. The team was now looking for a place with ideal coniditons for wine-making.Everything fell into place when they came across a space right on the Rhine, which had been temporarily used for an art installation during Art Basel 2022. The space was essentially a cellar with air conditioning. After Art Basel, no one wanted the space, but it was exactly what S.P.A. needed. So they founded an association and launched Urban Winery S.P.A.

let's do it the S.P.A. way

The name S.P.A. for the winery as a place, the team and the wine produced there, stands for the german term “sehr pragmatischer Ansatz" which means "very pragmatic approach” Fittingly, the name itself was chosen pragmatically, after the team couldn’t settle on another option.
This very pragmatic approach runs through everything Kat does. And I think, this is the way to achieve everything that Kat has achieved in the last few years (or decades!) in Basel and beyond.  By simply pushing open doors, creating space, bringing people together, and making it happen!