GERMAN WINE WEEKEND!
March 2002
I arrived in Deutschland around mid-day, greeting by the official Welcoming
Committee, Norbert Auth and Matthias Wooge. They were waiting for me at
Frankfurt's humungous airport.
We immediately drove to the Rheingau region, some 15 minutes west of the
airport.
We stopped at the famous Rheingau estate of Robert Weil. They actually
maintain a Napa Valley-styled wine-tasting room. If the building looks
familiar and you've only visited wineries in Napa, keep in mind Beringer's
tasting room is in a place they call the "Rhine House."
Norbert (left) and Matthias "go to work" immediately!
Two Fans of Robert Weil!
We then took a look in the cellars of Weil.
There's a tank of a favorite wine!
You'll find many incredibly small tanks in German wineries, as they often make
tiny quantities of certain, special wines.
The barriques are used for Weil's red wine.
We then stopped at Weingut Freiherr Zu
Knyphausen in Erbach.
This is a lovely 22 hectare property that's been around since 1727.
Gerko Freiherr zu Knyphausen poured us a number of very good wines.
Amusing is his "little" everyday wine
called "Der Knippie".
We tasted a nice range of wines.
Especially fine was his 1993 Kiedricher Sandgrub Auslese, a mature wine with
great, long honeyed flavors.
We then visited the Weingut Peter Jacob Kühn in Oestrich, a relatively unknown
town outside the Rheingau. This family-operated property comprises some 15
hectares.
Young Fräulein Kühn shows off one of their "Doosies," an Oestricher
Doosberg Riesling.
Miss Kühn was a "Wine Queen" in a local wine fair. I had not
met royalty until then!
We then finished our winetasting and headed for Neu-Isenburg, home of Schloss
Wooge. There we met more royalty:
Princess Ike.
Though Matthias has engineered many important projects at his firm, Hochtief,
none is more important than Ike. And she is a project! She now
studies in Nürnberg.
We drank what turned out to be the best Cappuccino on my European visit and I
gave the Wooge's a bottle of Turley's famous "Zindelfinger."
Even Mrs. Matthias, Gunhilde (pictured here without a cigarette for the first
time), seemed excited about this rarity.
We then made tracks for Schloss Auth in Rodgau, where Norbert's wife Gaby was
busy with dinner preparations.
How about some oysters?
We had some sausages from the local sausage-meister and some Spanish red.
These look damned good!
And they were!!!
Gaby and Famous Eva Block put together a nice dessert!
MORE PHOTOS OF MY GERMAN
ADVENTURE
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