Around 1718, Charles III Philipp, Elector Palatine and Habsburg governor, was visiting Salurn in South Tyrol when he met Clemens Pankert, a teenage button-maker barely three and a half feet tall. Impressed by the young man’s wit, Charles invited him to join his court in Heidelberg.
Pankert, also known by the Italian name Giovanni Clementi, soon became a popular presence at court. He served as cup-bearer and was appointed guardian of the famous Heidelberg Tun, a gigantic wine cask housed in the castle cellar. By then, the Tun had been rebuilt after French troops damaged its predecessor. Despite its fame, it was more spectacle than storage: it never held wine.
Pankert was celebrated for his extraordinary drinking capacity. Stories claimed he could consume around thirty litres of wine in a day. As he circulated among guests, they would urge him to drink another cup. He would answer, “Perché no?”—“Why not?” The phrase became his catchline and gave him the name by which he is remembered: Perkeo.
His reputation rested on more than drinking. Perkeo knew about wine and its vintages, and oversaw Heidelberg’s wine stocks, casks, and cellar. He combined the responsibilities of a cellar master with the freedom of a court jester, entertaining guests with stories of his travels and mishaps.
Perkeo’s fame outlived him. Victor Hugo recalled him after visiting Heidelberg in 1840, and a drinking song was written in his honor. His memory is celebrated at wine festivals in Heidelberg and Salorno. Statues show him raising a cup, including one beside the present-day Great Tun.
A portrait by Johann Georg Dathan, painted around 1720, depicts Perkeo in a green coat and red wig, thumbing his nose in defiance. Rather than a sword, he holds the key to the Heidelberg cellar.
Later legend claimed that Perkeo lived into his eighties and died after following a doctor’s advice to replace his wine with water. In fact, court records show that he died in 1735, in his early thirties. The story of his death by water is charming, but almost certainly fictional.
Perkeo’s tale also speaks to wine’s ability to cross social boundaries. German writer and philosopher Ernst Jünger observed that wine creates a kind of equality despite differences in status—an idea that a shared cup still expresses. Why not?