Many of you have had the pleasure of visiting a winery on a sunny afternoon, perhaps in Virginia, the finger lakes in New York or Napa Valley. You probably stood around a table, paid a few bucks and tried maybe four or five types of wine. Maybe there were crackers or pretzels there to nosh. As pleasant as that might have been, I'm here to tell you that you were missing out on the German experience.
Sure, there are plenty of those kinds of winery visits you can do here - and I intend to do those when it gets nicer outside - but have you ever gotten to sample an entire winery in the vintner's house?
That's what the hubby and I did on Friday night, and wow oh wow was that an evening.
It was organized by the hubby's boss, and the long table was comprised of his work colleagues and spouses/significant others, totaling about a dozen or so people. They've done these many times in the past but obviously it was our first time going. The idea is to taste everything and then submit an order form at the end of the night with the bottles you'd like to purchase.
When we arrived, we were greeted by our host and made our way to the dining room, where the table was covered with glasses, bottles of water, and plates upon plates of food - deviled eggs, trays of sausages, ham, and prosciutto, cheeses, breads and more. Our host's wife replenished the nibbles during the night, and even brought out some warm ham and cheese spirals.
Once everyone was seated, we dove right in, and our host kindly spun around the table pouring wine in our glasses, sat back down and explained what we were tasting. (As the evening wore on, the wine began to slosh and spill as it was poured, probably because our host was also sampling right along with us). Most of the selections were white, as the Rhine river valley (and really, Germany in general) is known for the Riesling grape. This versatile grape runs the gamut of varieties of wine it produces - you'll find it in dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wines.
For those that know a little about wine, when I say Riesling you might immediately think of wine that is overly sweet and a week ago I'd probably say the same thing. Doing this tasting made me truly appreciate the grape because I could taste the differences between them.
It also made me realize that I know jack about wine.
Our host, the vintner, was a walking encyclopedia on wine. As he should be. The winery, Weingut Eugen Wehreim, has been around since 1693. (That's older than the United States, people. By like a lot.)
Anyway, I can't tell you how many wines we drank - somewhere in the 12-18 range probably. I tried to keep drinking everything in my glass but gave up about halfway through when some of the samples turned a little too sweet and I realized that I should probably pace myself a little.
Although I never considered myself a white wine gal, the hubby and I found many of these to be delicious. We could definitely see ourselves sipping them on a balcony with some cheese. We even liked the Eisewein, or Ice Wine, which is a super sweet dessert wine. It gets its name because the grapes actually end up freezing on the vine before they are picked (which doesn't necessarily happen every year), and the result is a more concentrated and sweeter flavor.
At the end of the night, we got to try their non-alcoholic grape juices, both the white and red. I don't think I've ever had small-batch grape juice like this before and it did not disappoint. So delicious - we bought a few bottles of this to break out when we have a fancy fancy brunch.
Once we have all of our stuff, I can't wait to pull out our wine aromas kit and go back through these wines and get into it a little more. Maybe then I'll be ready to go back and do another tasting and actually ask some intelligent questions to the vintner. It was a really great way to get to know some of the hubby's coworkers, who were full of travel adventures and tips, so I look forward to hanging out with them soon.
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