wine tasting

I had the opportunity to go on a local wine tasting with a group of international students studying in Trier this semester. Our group is pretty diverse, 3 people from Spain, 2 from Holland, 1 from Finland, 2 from Russia, and 5 Americans (all design kids from KU!!! rock chalk baby). The wine tasting was cool, but not what I expected. I pictured his awesome little winery in the middle of all these vineyards, classy music, men in collard shits, ladies in nice dresses, maybe some cheese....and i was wrong. We all recieved an email from Bernt Werner ( the international student corrdinator who just happends to look like James Bond.... hehe ) saying no highheels. I skeptically took off the adorable brown heels i was wearing and threw on a pair of boots. All the kids met up at the Porta Negra around 6pm (the typicall meeting point) and hoped on the bus to the outdoor auditorium. Here we met our hero, Bernt, and he proceeded to lead us up this HUGE hill. The hills were covered in grape vines (they are mini trees actually) and we proceeded to climb in altitude, winding in and out of rows and rows of vinyeards. By the time we reached the top, all of us were huffing and puffing, our makeup was running, the guys in long buttong up shirts were perspiring, and all were wondering where in hell is this place. The view was incredible, I must admit, you could see all of Trier from here. There were bees swarming everywhere, and not just your typicall hunny bee, but JIANT yello jackets, the biggest bees i have ever seen. Getting stung by one of these suckers would be like getting an eperderil shot. When we reached the top we took a few moments from to quick photos and headed right back down the hill in the opposite direction...and to our surprie the winery wasn't in the hills at all, it was across the street, we were just taking the secenic route. When we arrived at Weingut-Deutschherrenhof, a small log cabin looking house off of some residentail street, we were surpired to find that it was a resturant, full of people, who were staring at us, maybe beacuse most of us dressed up. (our mama's would have been proud!) We took our seats in the back and were all good and ready for some wine. A really nice gentleman, whose name i could hardly understand nether the less spell/remember, can to our tables with the first wine. He was the son of the man who owned the winery and was very, very knowleagble. Most of the wines were white and really sweet, reiseling, because that type of grape grows very well in this area, also, up until about 40 years ago, red wine was banned from being grown in Germnay, because the last King of Germany, only liked white wine (reiseling), and therefore banned the gorwth of grapes to produce red wine. (crazy huh?).. Here is the list of wines we got to try, getting more dry(f.y.i.: drinesss=amount of acidity in grape, therefore, more acid=more dry) as they go. The list i got is all in German so bear with me...

1.) 2007 Weissburgunder trocken (white)... (trocken meaning "dry")
2.) 2007 Reisling trocken (white)
3.) 2007 Reisling Alte Reben- (white)(meaning old vine) 12.5%alc.
4.) 2007 Sebastian No.1 Reisling (white)(fermented for a very short while)-11%alc
5.) 2007 Burgberg Spatlese feinherb-(white)
6.) 2006 Deutschherrenberg Riesling Spatlese(white)
7.) 2006 Dornfelder (red)
8.) 2006 Spatburger trocken (red)
9.)Alter Tresterbrand -aka grappa, very strong liquor 42%alc.

The wine was all really sweet, but surprisigly good. We were taught how to properly taste wine...swirl, smell, swish, sip, swish and drink. Also, how to properly toast...you say "Prost" and look every single person in the eye or else rumor has it you will have years bad sex??

In between round 5-6 we were given 10 large pizza looking things, called them flammkuchen. What it is is really thin crust, with light cheese and meat.veggies. It is so light and so refreshing. No heavy enough to fill you up put just the right amount so you dont get completely hammered at the wine tasting.

All and all the wine tasting was a huge hit. I had a lot of good conversation and must admit by the end i was midly intoxicated. I learned alot about what is growing in the hills of Trier and about the history of wine in Germany...all in all a wonderful and successful adventure