WC2006: Give Me Just One Riesling

MAINZ (8:44am local time) -- Having seen some of the key sites in Mainz on Saturday, my hosts arrange for a little jaunt to some nearby points of interest. First we stop at the Cloister at Eberbach, which had stopped being a monastery some time ago, and has since been transformed into a winery, concert hall and tourist attraction. Regarding the second of those three, they're currently set up for a broadcast of an orchestral concert, so there are lots of cables and lighting trusses amidst the history. This cloister is also where they filmed the movie adaptation of Umberto Eco's The Name Of The Rose.

We drive along the Rhein to a town called Geisenheim, where my hosts have a friend who owns a small winery and operate a restaurant two or three months a year. Unfortunately, this is not one of those months, but the friends are home, so we can at least visit.

In fact, they were waiting for a couple of guests to arrive - an elderly couple probably in their 80s, who had traced their family tree back some four or five generations to the original owners of the winery.

I didn't understand a word of the conversation, but they showed us a photograph of the woman's great-great-grandmother from the 1800s with her husband, apparently the first cellar master of the establishment.

She also had a small book from the forties that listed the names and the heritage of three or four generations of her family. The reason for the book, given the time frame, was predictably unnerving, as it served to prove that you were not Jewish so that you would be allowed to study - I'm assuming "at university" as they say around here.

We got a tour of one of the cellars - there were either seven or nine, and some were leased out to other vintners. We had some riesling beforehand - I think riesling and sparkling wine (sekt) were all they handled here, but I neglected to ask - and it was nice. Dry, and not too sweet. I was hoping for an opportunity to ask if I could buy a bottle or two, but none presented itself. This was probably for the best, as I hadn't really considered the logistics of fitting a bottle or two of wine in my bags for the plane trip.