German Wine Country in 3 Days - Day 2 (even longer)

6 a.m. wake up call from the fine lady at the Hotel Brenner desk. We had to be down for breakfast at 7 a.m. Note - all hotels in Germany include breakfast with their room rates. We are not talking about stale danish, dry cereal and bananas here - we're talking full scale, all-out gorgeous breakfast buffet. Hotel Brenner's included all types of breads for toasting, fresh yogurt, fruits, bacon, scrambled eggs, cheeses, several types of jams, and a re-discovery for me - a basket of warm soft-boiled eggs. I probably had not eaten a soft-boiled egg since childhood. Why? I do not know - they are so good! It was to be my first of three in three days.
Wine tasting number one was at 9 a.m. Riesling - the breakfast of champions. We drove from Koblenz to Leiwen and the Grans-Fassian winery. This was a beautiful drive along the Mosel. The winemaker was out of town that week, but his wife greeted us and led us into a sunny tasting room that was surprisingly modern in its furnishings and art on the wall. We tasted through several of their rieslings, but the highlight here for me was the final wine - an eiswein. It was cloudy and you could see very small sugar crystals suspended in the wine - very interesting.
Our next stop was to be the Heidemann-Bergweiler winery - also in the Mosel. On our way through some small towns, we kept passing storefront signs advertising "Federweisser & Zwiebelkuchen." Suddenly, our leader made an unscheduled stop and declared "you all HAVE to try this." At this point we had grown to a group of 16 Americans and there we were decending on a very tiny storefront cafe run by an elderly gentleman and his wife. I think he was both stunned and a little bemused when our guide ordered 16 glasses of Federweisser. This is wine in its earliest stage of fermentation. It is only available at harvest time and only in wine country because it cannot be bottled - it would explode after a relatively short time in a bottle. It has a milky white color as the yeast is converting the natural sugar in the grape juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The best way I can describe the flavor is "yeasty" with hints of green apple. I got the sense that there is a lot of folklore associated with this drink and the locals definately attribute health benefits to it. It is loaded with vit. B1 & B2 and is said to be good for the intestines. As we were drinking the Federweisser, the lady of the house brought out it's traditional companion - Zwiebelkuchen. This is a very rustic onion/bacon tart - freeform, thin crust with a custardy egg, sweet onion and smoky bacon topping. Always served warm - this was a combo that definately worked.
Back into the vans and off to Heidemanns in Bernkastel. This is one of the largest and wealthiest vineyards in the Mosel. We were greeted by the winemakers Dr. Peter Pauly (doctorate in agriculture,) and his step-son Stefan. They had us follow them by van through the village and well up into their vineyards to a spot overlooking the valley. We got out and climbed up further to some castle ruins with a nice overlook. Stefan had brought a picnic basket and out came, what else, some of their Riesling Auslese and real glasses - no plastic for the Paulys. This was a delightful spot to sip and snap some photos. We then drove back down to their mansion in Bernkastel for a tasting in their wine cellar. Twelve of their wines had been laid out. Here, the most interesting wine for me was their 1959 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling Spatlese. An aged white wine you say? Yes, I discovered that riesling is definately capable of aging well. Mrs. Pauly, Helga, is reportedly the business mastermind in the family and she had prepared a buffet-style lunch for us that was also served in the cellar. There were a few types of meat, sauerkraut, green beans cooked w/ bacon and a custardy cooked cabbage casserole. I was reminded of the cooking of my German grandmother whose basic philosophy was if you have to eat vegetables, why not cook them in bacon fat? It was obvious how proud the Pauly family is of their history in the Mosel and of their wines. As we left, they generously gave each of us a bottle of their 1999 Bernkasteler Lay Riesling Eiswein. I think it will be the perfect finish to Thanksgiving dinner.
From here we drove to the very small town of Ayl to check into our hotel for the night - Pension Linden. The woman running it, Christine Linden, speaks very little english, but was friendly and showed each of us to our rooms. The whole place had been re-done about a year ago and was spotless. It's a bit hard to describe, so if you are interested, check out their website. It's in German but there are a lot of photos in the gallery. We had a little time to stroll around the village before departing to our final winery of the day. If you are looking for action DO NOT visit Ayl. There's nothing but picturesque peace & quiet.
Our last stop of the day was in stark contrast to the grandeur of Heidemanns. Geschwister Simon is a small family-run winery on a farm. We were greeted by the entire family - dad, mom, grandfather, 2 young daughters and a host of other family members. Somehow I have lost their actual names, so for the purpose of this post they will be refered to as Mr. Simon, Mrs. Simon, etc... Mr. Simon had purchased an old German army truck which pulls a trailer for hauling people up into his vineyards. We piled on and up we went. It was a crisp evening and I was reminded of the hay rides from my youth in Wisconsin. Unlike at Heidemanns, here we stopped in the actual vineyard - so close to the grapes that we could touch and sample them. Mrs. Simon had been traveling behind us in a van and out came a wooden table, champagne flutes and cold bottles of their 2000 Ayler Kupp Riesling Brut. What a "high" - being in the vineyards, sipping sparkling riesling with the family who made it, overlooking the village of Ayl. Just then, Mrs. Simon broke out platters of her version of warm Zwiebelkuchen. Heaven.
Back in their rustic tasting room, 11 of their wines were available for us to taste. These wines do not have the sophistication and complexity of some of the others we had tasted, but there is a lot to be said for wine, or anything else for that matter, that has been crafted by people who have an obvious love and passion for what they do. We were served a buffet supper that was very good and continued the day's theme of baconlicious vegetables - bacon-wrapped new potatoes. My favorite wine here was the sparkling riesling and I bought a bottle to take home. Unfortunately, it is not available in the US. I was told that there just isn't a market for German sparkling wine here - too bad.
Back to the rockin' town of Ayl where we discovered we had two choices for post-riesling nightcaps - the one bar in town (run by none other than the enterprising Mrs. Linden,) or a Federweisser cafe. I went with the group seeking Bitburger (see day 1 post on daytime riesling drinking=nighttime beer craving.) The wisdom of this choice became very obvious on day 3, as I will explain in the next post.
I was in bed by 10 p.m. awaiting my next 6 a.m. wake-up call!

www.grans-fassian.de

www.heidemanns-bergweiler.de

www.pension-linden.de

Dear Lynnb,

Your writen account took my breath away...I want to take my husband to Germany soon...sounds like Oct. is a fine time for wine tasting...who did you book your trip w/? Airlines? I live in Chicago...hope to show him your post tonight.

Buffalo Gal,

My situation was a bit unique. I am the general manager of a downtown restaurant that carries Allendorf, Heidemanns, and Kesseler wines. This trip was organized by Great Lakes Wine Company, the distributor of those wines and many other German wines throughout the mid-west. I was the only "restaurant" person on the trip - most people were owners or managers of liquor stores or upscale food & wine shops. It was a sales reward, but also a chance to educate us more on the wines to help us continue to grow sales of their products. I have shared stories from my trip with my servers and bartenders with the hopes that they will pass them on to our guests. Putting faces behind the lables makes people feel more connected to the wine and that leads to brand loyalty which is I'm sure why Great Lakes sponsors this trip!
None of this helps you plan a visit, but I'm so glad I inspired you to go. Germany was never on our short list of places to travel to, but once I was there, I realized it should have been. I hope to go someday with my husband too.
Do try for harvest time and be sure to do the Rhein cruise I described in day one - it was fabulous. We flew United Airlines on a direct flight from O'Hare to Frankfort. I did get a little lost in the airport trying to find the meeting point for our group. It was not a problem as airport staff were friendly and mostly english-speaking. I found that to be true everywhere except in the smallest of villages.
I've had a lot of fun documenting this trip - I hope to finish day three sometime later today. Lynn