Yes, it tastes as good as it looks! German desserts are not heavy with sugar, although I am certain there are still a lot of calories.
Our first wine tasting appointment is at 10:00 this morning. Wow, pretty early for wine but this is not unusual in the Mosel area. You can make wine tasting appointments for 8:30 am in some Weinguts! We will be at two wineries in the Ruwer area. Weingut Karthäeuserhof KG located in Eitelsbach (Ruwer) is our first stop.
Huge grounds and we arrive a little early. Good news in that we walk around trying to find the right building where the Weingut and wine tasting room may be. We find the office and then are escorted with our host Angela to another building that we had passed by on the way. Angela is a tall long legged blonde young woman who is a relatively new employee. The Weingut owns 18 hectares which is right beside their office. The area was first listed in the records as belonging to monks in 1223 and wine already being produced. In 1811 it came into private ownership. They produce between 70,000 to 80,000 bottles each year. About 40% of their wine is exported.
Over the 30 minute period we sample about 8 bottles. Interesting that they are not selling their 2015 GG as they believe it will show better in a few years. The GG we did sample was a 2009 vintage. Their GG range in alcohol content from 12 -13%. Their wines are pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks.
I asked Angela how she would describe Ruwer Riesling wines as differing from Mosel wines: Ruwer Riesling have more minerality, cleaner and lighter; not as fruity. The Ruwer is cooler in climate and has primarily grey slate ground and a lot of iron in the soil. A number of their vines are at least 50 years old. She provides a pamphlet with all the wines to be sampled as some data on each wine.
Each of their wines were very good. One unique wine was a Spätlese Trocken as normally a Spätlese is sweet. Angela reminded us that there are dry versions of Spätlese. This bottle had only 7.9 grams of residual sugar. To make a choice for one wine was difficult, but we picked their 2015 Riesling Schieferkristall Feinherb for 12.50 Euro. A real harmony of acidity with sugar as this is a medium-dry Riesling.
Wine tasting room at Weingut Karthäuserhof. Very beautiful ornate room built in 1895. Check out the tile pictures. The middle picture is of Trier from more than a hundred years ago. It is very humbling sitting in a room like this and sampling wines. You almost feel like a Kaiser is going to show up.
Vineyard located right beside Weingut Karthäuserhof. Very steep!
Just another example of the steepness of these Riesling vineyards in the Ruwer area. When we saw the Ruwer River it didn't look very big. I wouldn't rate it as a river... ;-)
We drove around the small towns in this part of the Ruwer. We didn't want to go straight from one wine tasting to another especially given it is the morning. We eventually stopped at Weingut Karlsmüle around 11:15. Gravel parking lot at the end of a short country road and nestled against a hillside. Easy to find the Weingut door and very casual wine tasting area. They are the sole owners of the Lorenzhofer vineyard. Also, one of the well known Riesling writers described them ..."wines of inspirational precision." You gotta love the wine writers use of the language.
We learned about 15% of their wine is exported. Their older grape vines (Alte Reben) range from 50 to 60 years. They produce around 70,000 bottles of wine each year. When I asked Sylvia about her impression of how the Ruwer Rieslings differ from the Mosel: "higher acidity and leaner Riesling."
I had made contact with Sylvia Wels via email and she greeted us. We did not need an appointment which is unusual from my experience with Weinguts. We were provided with a pamphlet titled "Weinliste 2016" with many wines listed and broken into the following Riesling sub-categories: Unsere Riesling Klassiker trocken Our classic Riesling trocken (dry) wine
Unsere Grosse Lage Our great location wine (which were all trockens)
Feinherb Medium-dry wine
Fruchtsüss Sweet wine
Edelsüss Nobel sweet wine
Sylvia was very casual with a great personality. In addition to the pamphlet providing the acidity level (GS) and alcohol level of each wine she would verbally tell us the grams of residual sugar (this provides a description of the sweetness of the wine). We had a lot of fun with this wine tasting and learned more about Riesling. Also, both Lana and Sylvia used German/English dictionaries to help with communication and descriptions. We found that some of the wines had some effervescence. We sampled 11 delicious bottles of Riesling. We decided to purchase a 2015er Lorenzhöfer Riesling Auslese (sweet) for 20 Euro.
Randy and Sylvia in the wine tasting room at Weingut Karlsmühle. As you can see very informal wine tasting room. We sat at a small table while Sylvia retrieved the bottles from a fridge. She has been with the Weingut for 32 years.
We went into the tourist area for lunch at Kartoffel Restaurant Kiste. Lana had read great reviews about this casual restaurant that specializes in potatoes. It was a short walk from where we are staying and fortunately we found an outdoor table. Service was prompt and efficient. The food was very good as well.
Kartoffel Restaurant Kiste in Hauptmarkt area. Check out their logo!
Randy's lunch of Bratkartoffeln mit gebrãuntem Leberkâs and some fantastic German mustard. I love egg on anything. Bratkartoffeln is fried potatoes and they are delicious.
Lana's lunch of Trierer Wurstsalat and, . . . yup, more fried potatoes!!
Now that we had finished our lunch and it is around 14:00 we decided to become tourists in Trier. Trier is known mainly for two things: (1) ancient Roman ruins (2) birthplace of Karl Marx. Just an aside to history, but Trier was the western capital of the Roman empire. This was a huge community for hundreds of years governed by the Romans. Of course around 500 AD the German Huns decimated them and destroyed as much as they could. Fortunately, much of the Roman ruins have been excavated. The scale of these sites is staggering even compared to what you will find in Rome.
Our first walk was to a Roman ruin Barbarathermen or known as the Barbara Baths. It is the largest Roman bath complex north of the Alps. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Before we walked here we went to the Tourist Information office and got a map. We managed to find it without any vehicles hitting us. Free admission. Lots of information on site and you can walk on a bridge above the excavation. The site is huge. Disappointing that there is modern equipment on site and a couple of guys putting bricks into places rather than digging. Otherwise, very cool to see ancient Roman baths.
Lana's picture of signage showing the position of the bath complex.
Lana's picture of the Roman bath ruins.
Picture from a webpage.
We walked to the next major Roman ruins: Kaiserthermen aka Trier Imperial Baths. Another huge site although in this case the admission fee was 4 Euro per adult. Well worth the cost though. Not only were these baths, but there was a supporting complex and a huge green field for sporting events. Another massive physical site. You get to walk among the ruins and pretend you are back almost 2,000 years in the footprints of the ancient Romans. We learned a lot about the Romans and their ingenuity and engineering brilliance. Who would of thought that in Deutschland you would find so much Roman history?
Very narrow walkways and high ceilings.
Yes, this place is huge!
Love the brickwork and red/white designs.
Webpage picture.
Ducks seen at Kaiserthermen. Very large and they can fly despite their awkwardness. We are unsure of the type of duck?
Kurfürstliches Palais (built in 1757 in a Rococo design). So beautiful although it looks though like it belongs in France.
**Lana here!! I feel compelled to write about the cultural influences we are noticing on our trip. Below is a picture of a bagel shop. Yes, a bagel shop. Years ago I met a colleague in Waldorf who had taken a position in the US for 2 years. When he returned to Germany he said the one thing he missed the most about the US was the bagels. There were not to be found anywhere in Germany at the time. What is most interesting is that the bagel flavours below copy the traditional ones (plain, sesame, everything, etc.) but there is one with a german twist--you'll note the two darker tan ones on the bottom right. They are laugen which is traditionally like a pretzel. Who wouldn't like a pretzel bagel??!??!!!
** Lana here!! This sign stopped us in our tracks!! For those of you who haven't seen the Netflix documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi"--we highly recommend it. In a nutshell, Jiro is a highly respected sushi master who owns a teeny tiny sushi restaurant in Tokyo. It houses 8 seats and reservations are hard to come by. But Jiro is famous for his incredible sushi and religious attention to detail from the making of the sushi rice, to selecting his fish to serve. We're not sure how Jiro would feel about this restaurant using his documentary title in it's bi-line.
** Lana here!! Lastly, the Dietz bakery owner we met yesterday in Ruwer told us that she misses American peanut butter!! She said that once a year, one of the grocery stores will bring it in and sell it as a special treat. It is real american peanut butter and very good. Something as ubiquitous as peanut butter which you would never find here is becoming more common in Germany.
For dinner tonight we simply crossed our street to de Winkel restaurant. Pretty casual neighbourhood place that is like a wine bar. We figure this restaurant is frequented by locals. We enjoyed our meal. The only peeve was the number of fellow patrons smoking. In Europe though this is very common. They do not have the same laws in regards to smoking.
Randy's order of schnitzel (with no sauce). An authentic German schnitzel. Perfectly cooked.
Lana's order of Flammkuchen with onions, speck and creme frache. A typical Alsacian-style Flammkuchen. Delicious!
This is our Airbnb apartment in Trier. We are in the second level from the street. Very room with four separate rooms inclusive of the bathroom. Very convenient location. Street relatively quiet except for restaurant across the street. Only one set of stairs to climb. There is one unit per floor.
On our afternoon walk-about, we both needed to find a public restroom/toilet. You pay .50 Euro to use their bathrooms. A lady will collect your coin as you enter or as you leave. In my opinion, I think it is over-priced and strange to pay to use a public toilet. Not so much the price, but the principle. It did come in handy though. ;-)
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