A COUPLE MORE WINE STORIES

  

Styrofoam Cups

            Before boarding the train for the overnight trip to the Australian Outback, it was suggested that we might like to buy a bottle of wine to enjoy that evening. We found the recommended liquor store and made our purchase.

            This time there was no difficulty opening the wine, but we only had Styrofoam cups in our compartment. The dining car was at the far end of the train and after some discussion we decided it was not very likely trying that we'd be successful getting a glass from there . I hate drinking anything out of Styrofoam, but we did what we had to do and drank our very good  wine out of the small Styrofoam cups. Since the cups were so small, the bottle of wine provided refreshment all evening along with pleasant conversation and scenery before and after dinner. The memory is a keeper.

Water Glass Full        

Wine accompanied the dinner meal each night on a European river cruise. Since it was not always easy to get the waiter’s attention, I turned my wine glass upside down leaving my water glass turned up. It was days before the waiter figured out he was filling my water glass with wine! I just had two glasses of wine in one and I didn’t have to bother or wait for the waiter.

Largest Wine Barrel

Heidelberg Fass, the largest wine barrel in the world sits in the cellar at Heidelberg Castle, Germany. Its capacity is 58,124 gallons.  Stairs lead up to a dance floor built on top of the barrel. We walked up the stairs but it was too dark to even think about taking pictures. It is one humongous barrel!

Monks’ Secret

Originally monks made most of the wine in Europe. Wine in the Wurzburg area is white. The green bottle, shaped like a goat’s bladder, reminded me of a Matuse bottle. It is said that the design and shape was easy for the monks to carry under their cloaks.My my.

Wine Stories

A COUPLE WINE STORIES

Normally in Europe drinks are not included with your meal. One even pays for water and 95% of the time it will be bottled water. When I was biking Bordeaux, France we had the company boss biking along with us. Every evening we were served wine with our meal. The fellows were not at all shy about raising an empty bottle to be replaced. The wine flowed the whole trip. We assumed all the neat boutique hotels were saying thank you to the boss for his business. Although in a region where wine was plentiful and reasonable, some would say cheap, it was nice to be the beneficiary of their generosity.

Tug of the Cork
Late in the afternoon of the first day in Warsaw we walked a couple of blocks to a local store to buy bottled water in large containers. While there we also bought a bottle of wine.
It took both Jan and me to open that bottle of wine. It was the year before 9/11 and the changes that event brought to travel. I had packed my handy dandy Swiss army knife, but wished I had packed my good cork screw. I was afraid that I would ruin the cork.

It was a struggle, but with each of us pulling in a different direction, with Jan holding the bottle at its base and my pulling in the opposite direction on the corkscrew, we eventually popped the cork.
Jan remarked, “Hey we didn’t even get cork pieces in the bottle.”

We even had ice in the room which was a plus as I really like my wine cold.

After tasting the wine I said, “For a $2.50 bottle of wine, this isn’t bad.”

We celebrated out arrival in Poland and the start of three weeks in Eastern Europe.

Watering the Vineyard
We had dinner one evening in the Hungarian countryside at a winery.

Dinner was very good, but the wines from this award winning vintner left a lot to be desired for my palate. This was a surprise as we had drunk some very good Hungarian wines. We were seated on a large wrap-around porch at the edge of the vineyard. Fortunately I was seated at the rail which gave me easy access to the plants that I watered with each successive glass of wine that came my way.

The gal pouring the varieties of wine held a handled glass container with a 30” long spout which she covered with her finger to stop the flow of wine as she move from glass to glass.. We did note that a few more rules would apply to this process in the states. Even though I did not indulge in more than tasting the wines, it was a fun and different evening.

In the Czech Republic we visited a Mozart museum where we also had the privilege to attend a private concert. After the concert we were given a glass of champagne and had a chance to wander the lovely manicured grounds. I’m not much of a champagne drinker so after a sip or two I watered the lawn. I needed to be sober to climb the hill and touch that concrete table where Mozart sat while he composed Don Giovanni in 1787.

I have several wine and many ice stories which I’ll eventually relate to you my readers.