Greetings from Beaune
May 11, 2008 – 5:03 pm by PhilipHello All,
Given I’ve been slack I will give you the cooks tour of Germany, rather than the planned hour by hour commentary I know you all want.
After 19 hours on the plane I felt pretty well out of sorts and ready to pass out for a while. But bleary eyes was replaced with white knuckled terror as we hit the Autobahn. Eventually we reached Zeltingen a beautiful town in the Mosel that at 6am is completely closed. We got some directions and headed to Bernkastel with is a ‘bustling Metropolis’ by comparison. The quality of the breakfast heralded the quality of the food overall and so a quick walk around the beautiful old town sitting directly in front of a walk of non-stop vines a then a lunch with a few beers perked us up.
The tour and tasting with Desiree from Dr Loosen was amazing! 2007 is an awesome vintage. The vineyards are indescribably steep and the view from the top is breath taking. Dinner with a group of English trade and the wines from Dr Ls Pfalz winery JL Wolf was pleasant but the food left something to be desired. I did learn that the English wine trade HATES Trocken riesling. The owner was forced to remove his beloved magnum of DR L Trocken from the table in the end.
Egon Muller in Saar was our next days visit. Another flight on the Autobarn made for a quick trip and the wines were stunning, again, look out for 2007. The vineyards behind the house and cellars underneath are unlike anything in Australia.
The afternoon saw us 2 hours late for our visit to JJ Prum. After Mrs Prum proved we were in the wrong she then showed us a lovely flight of Wehlener Sonnenuhr and Graacher Himmelreich from Kabinett to Auslese from 2007. Plus a 2003 Wehlener Auslese and a 2003 Graacher Goldkap. Very excellent. If you haven’t grabbed any of the 2006s then you should and mark April next year to get the 2007s.
A nice dinner and an early night was on the cards to follow.
Yesterday morning saw me rubbing shoulders with the locals. After following a walking track, I think I took a wrong turn somewhere and when I turned around I was confronted by two men and a 4 wheel drive blocking my path. I kept going until I heard a gun shot. I slowly kept going with then watching me from Binoculars and wished the men ‘Gutten Morgen’ and was greeted back with ‘are you just going for a run’ I said ‘I was walking and lost’. He said ‘ok’ and I walked on and never looked back. I think they were hunting deer but was nervous when I realised no-one offered venison on their menu. Is it possible weiner schnitzel isnt veal after all?
We left fo Beaune and drove through Luxembourg and a stop in Nancy. We found our accommodation here and had a few glasses of Burgundy at Bistrot Bourguignon.
Its Sunday morning and we are going to set out and have a look at the vineyards and probably Dijon. I feel safe here because hunting season is September through to February.
Au revior,
Phillippe
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