Map of the Rheingau wine area
First thing though is to get to a grocery store to buy supplies for brunch tomorrow and to find German products we can't get in Vancouver. The German grocery store has the same general smells as any North American grocery outlet. Check out the parking spot reserved for mothers with babies. I don't think we have this in BC?
Randy's list of Rheingau Weinguts:
At Wiesbaden's Rheingau Weinfest:
Schloss Johannisberg
Schloss Rheinhartshausen
Franz Künstler
Schloss Vollrads
At Rüdesheimer Weinfest:
Weingut Josef Leitz
Weingut Georg Breuer
Not at the Weinfests:
Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich (get to on Sunday)
Weingut Eva Fricke in Kiedrich(only open Saturday and almost sold out)
Weingut Königin Victoriaberg in Hochheim (not able to reach)
About a 30 minute drive to Rüdesheim, but very difficult to find parking as this village is pretty busy with their Weinfest and the many other tourists and tourist buses. Adrian and Tina have their car as well so we need to find parking for two cars. It is an overcast day with some temporary rays of sunshine. Not that easy to locate the Weinfest area, but we figure it out.
We are all hungry as it is now the early afternoon. There are ten Weinguts at this smaller Weinfest, but I am interested in the two highly recommended Weinguts listed above. Same as the other Weinfest in that you need a glass for Euro2 deposit then you can purchase pours and/or a bottle of the wine you want/like. Very informal and much smaller scale than the dramatically larger Rheingau Weinfest in Wiesbaden.
Käsespätzle (Cheese noodles that are a German Swabian dish). These were slightly different with the addition of crispy onion pieces sprinkled on top. Definitely a great flavour enhancement.
A local dish Schlemmerzunge (more cheesy goodness that is very flat like a pizza and very comforting)
Roasted pork butt, roasted onion, bread and a pickle. Very filling and the meat was tender and juicy with a crispy skin.
Rüdesheimer Weinfest stage
From the left: Tina, Adrian, Lana, Manu & Philipp. Everyone enjoyed the food and wine tastings. We purchased some wine bottles at Weingut Josef Leitz. Tina was talking with the people at Weingut Georg Breuer's booth and their Weingut was two blocks away and open for business. We decide to get to their Weingut for more wine tasting/purchasing. My backpack from the three bottles is very heavy. ;-)
The three of us are involved in the wine tasting at Weingut Georg Breuer. Like most German Weinguts very unpretentious and free tastings. The pours are extremely generous and the staff very knowledgeable. There is no pressure to purchase. They are so proud of their wines that are from their own vineyards. In this case Robin was from Belgium, but had lived in Georgia, USA so had an American accent when speaking English. At the Weingut the wine is much cheaper to purchase and 95% of their wine is available to taste and purchase. The three of us spent a long time tasting and then decisions to purchase. Some of the bottles we tasted were as old as 2008. It was such an excellent experience. Lana and I purchased two more bottles. We are now down to only four "slots" available for wine purchasing.
Decision to stop along the way back to Wiesbaden for dessert. We find Schloss Johannisberg open and they are located on the top of a gently sloped hill for an incredible view while we enjoy our desserts.
View from the Schloss (Castle) looking towards the Rhine river and valley.
Another view
You might think Germans only do Apple Strudel. They have an array of delicious desserts although they don't use the same amount of processed sugar we use in North America for our desserts and they are delicious!
Raspberry tart with pistachio ice cream
Plum tart
Apricot cheesecake (a lighter version of our North American cheesecake)
Blueberry not cheesecake (same as above)
We are back to the apartment with our five new bottles of Riesling around 6 ish. We need to get to the Weinfest to meet our friends from Heidelberg, Wolfgang and Adri. The news prior to us arriving in Europe was that Adri was expecting their first child. We had bought some baby gifts. Adri showing off one of their gifts. We didn't know the gender of their baby so Lana selected neutral colours but they did find out they are having a girl!! It just happened that this is Adri's favourite colour and their first baby gifts.
Alexander Knapp, myself and Philipp. A couple of years ago I went to a Bundesliga match in Mainz with Alexander, his wife and his mother-in-law. Alexander is a good friend of Philipp and now lives east of Mainz.
Our friend Markus from Frankfurt.
Fortunately, when we arrived Wolfgang and Adri had a table and their friend Hector was there as well. Hector is from Spain, but lived in various parts of Europe. Currently, he is living in Frankfurt. He speaks English, German, Spanish, Italian, French and a couple of other languages. Usually difficult to find tables to sit at. Philipp, Manu, Adrian and Tina join up later so we have quite a crowd.
While it wasn't cold there were threatening dark clouds. There was a heavy cloudburst and some of us got soaked by the rain or rain washing off the top of the awnings. Oh well, it was like being in Vancouver. More Riesling being drank, but mostly we were drinking Trocken and Feinherb/Halbtrocken style wines. Basically dry and semi-dry Riesling wines. We had food at the Weinfest to help soak up the wine drinking--bratwurst, spundekäse (a cream cheese like dip for pretzels), homemade potato chips, spiesbraten. We left to walk home around 12:30 am and it wasn't raining. The great thing is despite the wine drinking nobody gets stupid, violent or aggressive just lots of socializing with friends and meeting new people at your table.
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