Hi, everybody, and
welcome back to Cépage et Cusine, Mary’s and
Brian’s blog about wine, food, culture, people, and places. Today we visited Piesport to meet Johannes
Haart at Weingut Reinhold Haart and taste his wines. The family lives at the foot of the
Goldtröpfchen vineyard in Piesport and within steps of the Mosel. This is a view of the vineyard from the other
side of the Mosel.
We got to Piesport early
to have lunch. The only restaurant in
town is the Weingut Kurt Hain Hotel and Restaurant. Mary loves those geranium boxes.
Here’s a view from the
terrace of the restaurant to the other side of the Mosel.
This pizza dish, called flammkuchen, is actually very common in
Germany, on the menu of most restaurants we visited. It’s often the daily lunch special. This one is ham and cheese. The photo makes it look bigger than it really
is. It’s the size of a typical single
portion pizza.
I had white asparagus
with hollandaise sauce. There must have
been a bumper crop. All the restaurants
have these at the moment.
We walked to Weingut
Reinhold Haart and met Johannes. He is a
completely friendly, enthusiastic, welcoming fellow. He lives on the property with his family.
The Haarts have been
producing wine on this property for almost 700 years … seven hundred, on this
property, Piesporter Goldtröpfchen. They
farm eight hectares, about 20 acres.
They grow only Riesling, all on steep slopes.
This photo print pretty
well shows the profile of the Riesling grape.
You can see the flavors can include citrus, tropical fruit, orchard
fruit, flowers, and a granite minerality.
Their wines are
outstanding across the board, from their basic village wine for everyday
consumption to their more prestigious grosse
gewachs, the great growths.
A
vineyard designated as a grosse lage
would be analogous to a grand cru in Burgundy, one of their most prized
vineyards.
When the wine is labeled grosse gewachs, or “GG”, that means the
grapes come from a grosse lage and
the wine has been fermented dry, which is called trocken. You can see in this
photo that his Piesporter Goldtröpfchen carries this designation.
As Johannes explained all
this to us, we tasted through his lineup of wines. The differences among the villages and the
specific vineyard sites were readily apparent.
In addition to parts of Piesporter
Goldtröpfchen, he owns some of this vineyard in the nearby village of
Wintrich. His parcel is just to the
right of the rocky outcropping with the white cross.
We were interested to learn
about the perils and skills required to work the vines and harvest the grapes
on such steep slopes. He said much of
the work, especially harvest, is done by seasonal workers from Poland and Romania. Although some local workers also participate,
he and other producers we met all said that young Germans are less interested
now in hard agricultural work that pays modest wages, so they rely on imported labor. Sound familiar?
This video clip below was
recorded high on Piesporter Goldtröpfchen and explains more about the soil and
the nature of work in the vineyard. Have
a look and listen.
Here’s a beautiful
sitting area on the bank of the Mosel just in front of their estate. What a nice place to relax at the end of the
day.
Here’s the vineyard just
behind the estate home.
Walking back to our car
we can see that several of the houses were built in the 1700s …
… including this one in a
year of special significance to Americans.
One of the buildings is
marked with the water level from a flood in 1784. Moselhöhe
means Mosel height. I guess they’re
still talking about that one.
After we left Johannes,
we took a back way to Bernkastel on a road called the Panoramastrasse, or
Panoramastraße. The views of the
vineyard and of Piesport are amazing.
See for yourself.
We drove around for a
while, taking in the views, and came across this vineyard, Wehlener
Sonnenuhr. Wehlen (pronounced Vay-len)
is the village and Sonnenuhr means sundial.
Wehlener Sonnenuhr is another of the famous vineyards of the Mosel. We’ve enjoyed many wines from this vineyard
and happening upon it was a thrill for me.
There is, in fact, a
sundial in the vineyard, placed in the 1840s by one of the Prüm wine families
(more about the Prüm families in posts to come). Look at those vines perched precariously on the slope around the sundial. Amazing.
The next village after Wehlener
Sonnenuhr is Zeltingen, a beautiful and quaint village on the river with parks,
bike paths, hanging flower baskets, and terraces where we can enjoy a coffee or
glass of wine. We decided to stop and
just relax on a hotel terrace.
Unbelievably in a place like this, it was a vegan restaurant. I guess with a cuisine that is native to
Germany and the number of visitors that come from elsewhere, there is a market
niche for vegan consumers.
It was a beautiful place
to reflect, see the vineyards, and watch the Mosel slide on by. I can’t recall when I have felt more relaxed
and peaceful.
The Alt Cues is a hotel and
restaurant at the foot of our street, Kardinalstrasse, where we went for dinner.
It’s an established neighborhood
restaurant that I think probably draws a group of regulars in addition to
tourists like us.
Here’s another
cultural variation. Our reservation was
for 7:00. Remember how we were always
the first to arrive in France when we showed up at 7:30? Not so much in Germany! Some of our fellow gray hairs were already
paying their bill and leaving shortly after we arrived, like the early bird
special crowd. We were among the last to
finish up, like we were closing the place down.
There’s more. For whatever reason, the population of
tourists here on the Mosel, as beautiful as it is, is definitely
chronologically advanced, if you know what I mean. Sort of makes us feel old. Are the things that attract us of interest
only to retirement-aged folks? I hope
not! This wasn’t the case in France, for
sure. On the other hand, there are lots
of people riding bikes and hiking, so I shouldn’t make broad generalizations.
Once again, the menu is
distinctively regional. Mary had this
dish, zwiebelschnitzel, a breaded and
fried pork cutlet with onions and potatoes.
Mine was schweinemedaillons mit röstis, pork
medallions with a mushroom cream sauce. Röstis were described by our server as
potato croquettes. To me, they are hash
browns, just like we get at McDonald’s.
We both enjoyed our dinner and the ambient experience, but we are
feeling like we’ve had enough pork for a while.
I was interested to try
the German version of Pinot Noir, called Spätburgunder. It only faintly resembles a Burgundy. It does have the texture and the cherry
character of Pinot Noir, but I don’t think this one is fermented all the way
dry. It had a confected, candy cane
quality. I think my curiosity is
satisfied although I would be glad to try another example.
In the background of the
wine glass photo, you can see the typical age of many of our dining
compatriots.
Ever since we entered
Germany, we’ve seen promotions for Bitburger beer. Bitte
ein Bit, translates literally to “one moment, please.” I guess the
expression has been colloquially transformed to mean “a Bitburger, please.” Signs are everywhere, on patio umbrellas,
restaurant windows, placemats, you name it.
It’s like they have a monopoly on the beer promotion market, which is
saying quite something in Germany. We
thought it must be like the ubiquitous Budweiser or Miller beer in the U.S., a
widely consumed, more-or-less generic beer.
I have no interest in beer, but Mary was eager to try it. She describes it as definitely different from American beer, a little sweeter, nutty, and more
yeasty, lighter and crisper, and liked it.
We walked back up the
hill to our apartment after a fun and relaxed day. Our host has these blankets on the bed, which
Mary thinks is hilarious. She says I
look like a 10 year-old in a snowman sleeping bag.
That’s our post for
today. Thanks for reading us at Cépage et Cusine. Let us know what you think. If you have questions, let us know that,
too. In the meantime,
Cheers!
Mary♥Brian
The bedding is hilarious!
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