Bernd Kreis

Coming Up

Ausbildung zum Hotelfachmann in Baden-Baden gave Bernd Kreis the basics that hold a service career together: discipline, timing, and a clean sense of order. Those habits still show in the way the trade reads from his side of the pass — controlled, attentive, and exact without looking labored. As sommelier of Weinhandlung Kreis, Bernd Kreis works in a field where judgment, memory, and sensitivity carry as much weight as technical knowledge. The move from hotel service into wine narrows the focus, but it does not change the method: detail first, then consistency, then the confidence to make each choice stand up in service.

Where They Are Now

At Restaurant Bareiss in Baiersbronn, Germany, the work is centered on wine, and Bernd Kreis holds the title of Chef Sommelier. That role is less about display than about structure: reading the list, shaping the selection, and keeping the conversation between bottle and table clear. In practice, chef sommelier means interpretation as much as placement, and that is where the role lands here — in selection that has to make sense in service, not just on paper. The focus stays narrow for a reason. In wine, precision often matters more than range.

Signature

Abandonado and rou-rou-rouge are listed among Bernd Kreis’s signature dishes, and the names carry their own kind of memory before the plate is even described. In a wine-centered practice, signatures work like shorthand: they mark out a hand, a pace, and a preferred register. For Bernd Kreis, they sit in the same field as the rest of the work — deliberate, memorable, and selected with the same exactness that defines service. The point is not ornament. The point is recognition.

In Their Words “Das ist ganz eindeutig ein portugiesischer Rotwein aus dem Douro, und zwar der Abandonado.” That kind of statement depends on close reading: region, style, and character identified without hesitation. It is the language of a sommelier who trusts classification, and who knows how much information can be carried in one clean line. “Dann wäre ich wahrscheinlich ein Saumur-Champigny.” The answer is compact, but it still does the work of self-definition. It treats wine as a way to place temperament and style, which fits Bernd Kreis’s approach: measured, specific, and comfortable speaking through the terms of the trade.