German Grapeseed Spa treatments, The Wald & Schlosshotel Friedrichruhe

Posted by winesleuth in German wine, Hotels and Spas, Lifestyle | 4 comments

Pic courtesy of the Wald, NOT a pic of The Winesleuth 😉

After a long hard day of wine touring, what better way to end the day then a relaxing rub down with crushed grape seeds. Crushed grape seeds? Well, these weren’t any old grape seeds and it wasn’t any old rub down. I was laying face down in a comfortably warm treatment room at the Wald & Schlosshotel Friedrichruhe Hotel and Spa, near the town of Verrenberg in southern Germany, getting a San Vino grape seed peeling rubdown.

original building

Let me backtrack a bit as to how I got here. I was on a trip with the German Wine Institute to discover the wines and cultural activities surrounding the southern city of Stuttgart. The visit and stay at the spa was all part of discovering all that this part of Germany has to offer. The Wald ( as I liked to call it, plus that’s really the only part of the name I could remember) is a luxury 5 star resort situated in a former castle. The main castle itself was built in the 18th century and throughout the centuries, it had served  as a family home as well as a royal residence. In the 1950’s the castle was converted into a hotel and in 2005, it was bought by the German company, the Wurth group because the chairman liked the place so much he decided he had to buy it. Beside the spa and indoor /outdoor swimming pool, the hotel also has a couple of restaurants, including a Michelin starred one, The Gourmet Restaurant, as well as a recently added Chef’s Table where you can watch the chefs in action. The hotel also boasts a cigar room where you’re free to smoke whatever you like (with in reason of course), private bungalows, and a golf course.

my room, pic courtesy of the hotel

The hotel has now expanded into 5 separate buildings and my room was in the spa wing. On walking in, the room was bigger then some of my old flats. On entering a huge bathroom greeted me off to the right and down a small hallway was the main bedroom partitioned off at the end so that it essentially became two rooms. One side of the partition was the bedroom and on the other side, a small living room, complete with sofa, chairs, wall mounted tv and a terrace that opened out onto the back lawn and the pool house. I don’t see why anyone would want to leave this place.

pool

I slipped on my swimsuit and walked out my terrace doors to the pool, where I had a quick swim before my grape seed rub. Ah, the grape seed peeling rub. I wasn’t really sure what I was in for when I signed up for it but it sounded like it would be good for my skin. It was. The hotel has a partnership with the SanVino company, a local company that buys the local grapes to produce it’s beauty products. The Wald choose San Vino to supply all their toiletries and beauty treatments because they liked the “source, make, sell, local” philosophy of the San Vino company. As a matter of fact, Jorg, the General Manager of the hotel, told us that they had complete confidence in the traceability of the companies products. They knew where the grapes came from, even who picked them, combined with the fact that they were supporting a local business, made them extremely proud to have the San Vino products represented in the hotel.

The grape seed peeling was actually a combination of ground up grapeseeds and cold pressed grapeseed oil along with some aromatic oils for a lovely smell. The  masseuse gave me a good half hour rubdown and then a hop in the shower to rinse off. Heaven! Silky smooth skin and I swear there was a glow emanating from me. At dinner later that evening, everyone said I looked very happy. As I looked around the table at my dinner companions those of us who had had treatments looked infinitely more relaxed then those who hadn’t. I wish I’d had time for more treatments (as well as a round of golf), the spa has a whole range available, but we were there for only one night. Well, there’s always next time and the Wald & Schlosshotel Friedrichsruhe is a gem of place to enjoy the finer things in life.