June 4, 2016 – Why So Serious?

Hi, everybody, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s blog about wine, food, culture, people, and place.  Today was an exploration of nearby villages in the Mosel, taking in the scenery and experiencing the culture.  Here’s the view from our apartment.  That forested hillside is on the other side of the Mosel. 

Here are a few more images from our neighborhood in Bernkastel.

This house, at the foot of our street, is the birthplace of Nicolaus von Cues, who was a theologian, philosopher, and cardinal, born in 1401, in this house … one four zero one.

This is the view up Kardinalstraße.

This is the new house on the block … 1904.

Our street is actually Raustraße.

And here’s our apartment, a ferienwohnung, holiday home.

A few more photos of the neighborhood around the apartment.

The next village, just a couple of minutes from Bernkastel, is Wehlen.

This is the Wehlen bridge.

Lunch was at the edge of the bridge at Zur Moselbrücke, which translates to, you guessed it, The Mosel Bridge.

There it is again.  Bitte ein Bit.

Based on several interactions such as at restaurants, the tourism office, and just watching people go about their lives, here’s where we began to get more of a sense of cultural behavior differences between France and Germany.  I think the Germans are generally more serious and focused when at work in contrast to the French.  We think there probably is an element of accuracy to the expression, “the French work to live while the Germans live to work.”  We saw a car drive past with big red letters on the rear window, in English, that said, “Why So Serious.”  They are not unfriendly.  They are nice people, polite and responsive, but they are serious.  Of course, this is a broad generalization and there are lots of exceptions.

Here’s an example of what I mean.  When we arrived at Charles de Gaulle in Paris on the first day, the railway workers were on strike, so we had to cancel our train to Dijon and rent a car at the airport instead.  I saw later on the Delta website that Air France workers were striking.  This sort of thing is common in France, but when was the last time you heard of Lufthansa workers going on strike or German air traffic controllers?  Just doesn’t happen, at least not commonly.  I admire their work ethic and the relative prosperity of Germany among other countries speaks for itself, but many of them don’t seem very joyful.

Our serious servers at Zur Moselbrücke served up familiar fare with a curt dankeschön, the schweizer wurstsalat with roasted potatoes.  Between the language barrier and a relatively narrow cuisine bandwidth, and trying to avoid really big lunches, we don't have all that many choices.

Mary had this nice cheese plate and prosciutto plate and we both had a glass of nice Mosel Riesling.

The view of the Mosel countryside is absolutely worth the trip.  What incredible beauty!

Here’s the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard on the other side of the bridge.

And another look at the famous sundial and the incredibly steep rows of vines around it.

We’ve enjoyed just walking around many villages and their churches.  This is the church in Wehlen.

Beautiful pink marble or granite columns.

On the other side of the Mosel from Wehlen and about a kilometer (0.6 mile) in the direction of Bernkastel is the small village of Graach and the famous Graacher Dompropst vineyard behind it.

Back in Bernkastel, we had a tasting appointment for the afternoon.

This is the estate home of Weingut Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler.

The vinotheque is staffed by Monika Schmitt, a longtime friend of the Pauly family.  Her own history is quite interesting.  She has excellent English language skills, a great convenience for us, and also speaks French in addition to her native German.  She explained that in the post-war occupation years, this part of Germany was occupied by the French and children were required to learn to speak French.

Pauly-Bergweiler dates to the early 20^th century and the marriage of two wine families in the Mosel, both of which date back centuries.

The doctor part of the name is for Dr. Peter Pauly in the 1930s, who held a Ph.D. in agricultural science.  The family has holdings in multiple villages and vineyards.

In the course of a tasting experience of perhaps 45 minutes, Monika kept presenting wine after wine in various styles of trocken or dry, feinherb or off-dry, and sweet.  We tasted more than 20 wines.  Even Mary had to start spitting.

An interesting vineyard name here in Bernkastel is the Doctor vineyard, so named because the wine from the vineyard was thought to have healing effects when consumed by a sick nobleman in medieval history.

Mary was enthralled by a swan and her swanling in the parking area next to the river.  The male member of the nesting pair was nearby.

On the recommendation of our host, we had dinner in Bernkastel at the Doctor Weinstube Restaurant.

It looks exactly the way I would expect a traditional old German restaurant to look with wood beams, carvings, and fireplace.



They definitely play to the tourist traffic.  The staff are attired in period dress.

Happily for both of us, they had fish on the menu.  I started with this very nice appetizer of rächerlachs, smoked salmon on a potato pancake.

We both ordered a roasted trout.  I was delighted but Mary was dismayed to discover it was roasted whole.  She was so cute.  “My daddy always did this for me.”  I had to de-bone it for her, which attracted a sidewise glance from our neighbors at the next table.

The wine was this delicious Pauly-Bergweiler Bernkasteler Badstube am Doctorberg Riesling Feinherb 2013.  It was a feinherb (off-dry) kabinett-level wine with aromas of orchard fruit and a little citrus.  The palate was fresh and crisp with just enough residual sweetness to enhance the peach and pear fruit.  There was also a mild saline minerality that added to the balance.  It was beautiful and balanced, a gorgeous wine, and only €30, even at the restaurant price.

Here’s a market square in Bernkastel as the day came to an end.

And just behind is the famous Bernkasteler Doctor vineyard.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  It was a relaxing day in a beautiful place.  Thanks so much for reading us at Cépage et Cuisine.  Keep checking back for new posts.  As you know, we’re back home now in Plymouth, but I’ll try to post the remaining days of the adventure.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian